My Darling Demon
by Whispering Maiden
Summary: Katie had the perfect life, until she fell in love with a mutant.Now she's alone and pregnant. She never thought she'd see Kurt again,but now it turns out the X-men need her help to save him.Can she put aside all her fears to be with the one she loves?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys! Thought I'd try something a little different with this fanfic, much different from _Daughter of the Phoenix and Beginning of the Shadow_. I hope you all bare with me for this first chapter, it might be a little confusing. Please review and tell me what you think! If I don't get much feed back for it, I'll probably trash this story and start another, so if you like it or have suggestions, please tell me!_

J.C. Posch

xXx

I pulled my thin coat closer around me and readjusted my hood before entering the dark café. It was a brutally cold New York day, and I needed to get out of the wind, if only for a little while. I felt bad, knowing that I wouldn't be able to buy anything from the café in exchange for their shelter, but I didn't have a choice. I wasn't the one who needed the warmth.

I took in the scent of coffee, cinnamon, and cigarette smoke as I entered. A few people looked at me with looks of pity and others of distaste. But I was used to that, teen pregnancies aren't really looked upon with happiness. I wondered how these onlookers would act if they knew that it was a mutant's baby?

Seeing that few people occupied the back corner, I decided that was the best place I could hope for at the moment and quickly headed over. I sat down, sighing as my aching feet finally got a chance for some rest.

A waitress with greasy blonde hair came over to me. She gave me a false smile after clearly looking at my baby bump and handed me a small menu. I don't know what worse, when they try to ignore my "condition" or when they make it obvious and awkward.

"Hi, can I get you something to drink to start?" She asked.

"Er, no that's alright. I'll just find something in the menu." I tried to smile back, but it was hard when I was so hungry. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning, and that was only a stale cressaunt. I could try dining and dashing, but I'd feel so guilty about it and probably get caught. I can just pretend to look through the menu before they kick me out.

The waitress nodded and went back to the counter.

I tried to enjoy the warmth and the rest but it was hard. At least half the café was staring at me. I sunk uneasily in my seat and tried to ignore them.

I didn't used to be like this. Homeless, alone, pregnant. I was the good girl. Head of my classes, my parent's angel, bright future. But I threw all of that away because I made one stupid mistake.

I fell in love with a mutant.

I closed my eyes and thought back to the cursed, gifted day when I met him.

"_Come on Katie, we're going to get caught!" My friend Keisha giggled. We were on a school science trip to Toronto and decided to sneak out of our hotel after hours. I said no, but my friends dragged me along. We went to the mall for a bit, but now we were heading back to our hotel._

_At first I was leading the pack, not wanting to be out any longer incase we got caught, but a heartbreaking sight stopped me and made me fall behind the others. A homeless man sat leaning against a brick wall with a ragged blanket wrapped around him. He held a dirty hand out, a silent plea for help._

"_Give me a minute Kiki!" I replied, digging into my pocket. I only found a five and I felt a tightening of my chest. If only I hadn't bought these stupid shoes, I might have actually been able to offer help to this poor man._

"_Here, take this." I said softly, holding out the bill to him._

_I gasped when the homeless man looked up at me, his ragged blanket fell away revealing his face. His eyes were completely black, and fleshy tentacles were attached to his jaw and chin like a living beard. The man was a mutant. Coming from a very small town, I never met a mutant before. I heard stories and my parents spoke often about how they were tricks of the Devil; but I honestly never really thought about them before. They were just people, right? Just a little…different._

"_Katie, come on! What's taking you- ah!" Keisha came back for me and was pulling on my arm, until she noticed the mutant. She jumped behind me, keeping me in between the mutant and her._

"_Do you have any spare change?" The mutant rasped._

"_No, get away from us. Freak." Keisha hissed harshly. _

"_I can't get work and I haven't eaten in two days." He begged._

_Keisha tried to drag me away but I resisted. It wasn't his fault he was different, and even mutants needed to eat. I couldn't just leave him here starving._

"_Knock it off Kiki." I said. I put the bill in the man's hand. "I'm sorry, I don't have any more to give."_

_Kiesha rolled her eyes and stormed ahead, leaving me._

"_Ignore her." I muttered. I smiled at the mutant and said "God bless you, and good luck finding work."_

_The mutant's tentacles whipped around his face for a moment, then he ran off. I guess he thought I might change my mind and take back the money. I turned to go when I hear a voice._

"_That vas very kind of jah." It said with a German accent. I looked around but saw no one. And then I saw two yellow eyes watching my from the dark ally close by. The strange thing was (as if yellow glowing eyes weren't strange enough) was that they were at least nine feet high in the air. _

"_Pardon?" I asked dimly, stepping closer to the ally way._

"_Vhat you did for him, even though he vas a mutant. Most would have just kept valking, or worse." The voice answered._

"_Well, I guess I'm not like everyone else." I replied unsurely._

_This made the owner of the voice laugh. "No, I suppose not."_

_I decided that I had been out long enough, and that I was already taking enough of a chance of being caught to help the homeless man before. Besides, I'm not enough of country hick to think that every stranger I meet is my friend. _

"_I'd better get going." I said._

"_We'll meet again." The voice replied. I turned back around, thinking that was an odd thing to say to a stranger, but the eyes were gone. I shuddered slightly, then ran to catch up with my friends._

_The next day the school group went to the ROM. Luckily me and my friends didn't get caught for our little adventure the night before. But I couldn't stop thinking about the stranger in the ally with the yellow eyes._

"_What?" The group was standing in front of some Egyptian exhibit and I just realized that I had been asked a question. My mind had wondered back to what happened the night before. The others laughed at me and I blushed. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"_

_The tour guild rolled his eyes and led the group on. One of the parent chaperones nudged me and smiled. "Tired, right? I have trouble sleeping in strange areas too."_

_I smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I'm bushed. Um, I'm just going to go find a washroom, is that alright?"_

_The chaperone replied "That should be fine, just try to catch up to the group soon. And don't talk to strangers!"_

_I nodded and walked off thinking, "_Too late for that."

_When I made my way back to my group, I couldn't help but think something was…wrong. It was one of those feelings where the hair stands up on the back of your neck, your chest feels tight and you feel scared, but you don't know why. _

_Soon I found out why._

_Suddenly there was a loud bang and people started crashing through the windows of the building. People started screaming and running around, trying to avoid the shattering glass and the people attacking. Security ran in, but it was obvious they were going to be little help. The people attacking out numbered the small security detail and were mutants._

_The tour guild ran off and our chaperones pulled our school group close together and ushered us towards a wall._

_But when the windows broke, one of the Native totem poles were pushed over and had landed on a lady's leg. She was screaming in pain and a small toddler was crying at her side, begging her to come. No one else seemed to notice the lady because of their own distress._

_I bit my lip, trying to decide what to do. In truth I was scared out of my mind and wanted to stay safe with my group behind the chaperones. But I couldn't leave her and her child. She looked to be in so much pain, and the toddler could be trampled or hurt at any minute. Making up my mind, I pushed past the chaperones and charge towards the woman._

_I heard my science teacher yell at me to come back, but I ignored him and continued on. When I got to her, I realized I didn't know what to do._

"_Uh," I started stupidly. "Its okay, I'm here to help. My name is Katie Ghosting."_

_The woman grimaced in pain, in must have been hard to talk for her because all she could do was point at her crying child. _

_I nodded with understanding. I picked of the wailing toddler and whispered a few soothing things to him before turning back to the woman. "My school group has a protective circle over there, its probably the safest place for him right now. I'll bring him there and be right back okay?"_

_Without waiting for an answer, I made a mad dash towards to the group. I noticed that a few other of the museum visitors had joined the circle, keeping those hurt or young in the middle. A few of the adults had picked up debris to use as shields._

_Suddenly I felt a shock run through me, and I fell to my knees in pain. The little boy yelled harder, apparently the poor thing felt the shock to. I looked over my shoulder to see a boy, maybe in his early twenties wearing a spandex suit standing behind me, grinning cockily. Blue electricity sparked around his open hand. _

_I hissed, trying to push back the pain I still felt to get up._

"_Listen, I don't want any trouble." I said, trying to sound calm. "I don't know why you're here, but it has nothing to do with me or this little boy. Just let me get him to safety."_

_The boy flicked a bolt of electricity at my knee. I forced myself to bite back the pain and made myself stand tall._

"_Of course this has to do with you. All you pathetic homo sapiens." He said in a light voice. "Here on a school trip? Huh, I got kicked out of school for being a mutant."_

_He came closer to me, circling me like I was some sort of prey._

"_I'm sorry that you were treated that way, but this isn't making it better." I said, holding the little boy closer to me in hopes to protect him._

"_Yes it is. This little protest will smarten you humans up to who your superiors are. Maybe a few deaths will make the point." He cooed. A ball of blue electricity slowly grew in his hand, his target the boy in my arms._

"_No!" I screamed, dropping the toddler I now had my arms free. In one swift movement, I drew back my arm and lashed out at the mutant. My punch landed directly on his temple, making him go down. Farm girl punches hurt._

_I was running on adrenalin now. I swooped to pick up the boy again and ran him to the safe area. Dropping him off in one of the protective adult's arms, I ran back to the trapped woman. _

_She was now unconscious and a pool of blood was around her. Luckily the totem pole was made out of a lightish material. I was able to lift it off of her and push it away. The woman's eyes fluttered open to look at me. _

_Her leg was bent in a funny shape and bloody. I saw a bone poking through her skin and tried to to vomit. I took a health care class before, but I didn't know what to do. Could I move her without doing more damage?_

_I felt a large hand place on my shoulder. I turned around at the touch and came face to face with another mutant. He had sort of a catlike face, with blue fur and glasses. I leapt away, standing protectively over the injured woman._

"_Its alright! I'm a doctor, and I'm here to help." He said in a calm voice._

"_Oh yeah? Help like your buddies are, breaking into a museum and hurting people?" I said sarcastically._

"_No, I'm not part of this attack. I'm with the other mutants who are fighting them and helping people." He gestured behind his shoulder._

_I'd been so busy with my little "rescue mission" that I hadn't realised that more people had shown up. They were mutants too, but they weren't harming the humans. Instead they helped them move to safe areas and fought the mutants who first attacked. One threw exploding cards to keep a mutant that resembled a rhino at bay while a woman overhead flew two children away to safety. Over by my group I saw a red headed woman leading the people away while a man shot a open path for them with red beams out of his eyes._

"_Sorry, I just thought- never mind. That totem pole fell on this lady when they broke in. She keep's going in and out of consciousness. I don't think its safe to move her, because of her leg, but you're the doctor." I told him quickly as the mutant leaned over to examine the woman._

"_Hmm, I believe you're right. But I think I have another way of moving her." The blue man agreed. He clicked something on the headpiece he had on his ear. Some sort of communications device I guess._

"_Kurt, I need you to come here right away. I'm by the fallen totem in the Native North American exhibit." The man spoke. "Be prepared to bring two passengers with you."_

"_Wait, I have to stay here and help!" I argued. My fear was now totally replaced with adrenaline and the urge to help people._

"_You've done you're part little one." The man smiled and offered his hand. "The X-men thank you."_

"_The X-men?" I repeated. I heard a little about them before. They were an American group of vigilante mutants. Some thought they were menaces, others thought they were misunderstood heroes. If they get us out of here alive, they'll have my thanks._

_All of a sudden a dark purple puff of smoke appeared in front of me. Once it cleared, a young man stood in front of me. He was quite odd looking. His skin was completely blue. He had elfish pointed ears that poked through his curly black hair. He appeared to only have three fingers per hand and two long toes on each foot. A long blue, pointed tail waved behind him, making me wonder if it helped him balance. _

_His eyes…_

"_I told you we'd meet again, ____Fräulein." He smiled, showing pointed pronounced canine teeth. He winked a glowing yellow eye at me._

_"__You-" I was a little shocked._

_"__Kurt, you know this- ah, yes, from the ally. Well, no time for introductions. Get these two ladies to the X-jet, they both need medical assistance." The older blue man instructed. The blue boy, Kurt, nodded._

_"__I told you, I want to help." I was about to argue further, but then I realized that blood trickled down into my eye. When did that happen?_

___Kurt picked up the lady gently and held her in his arms. He then wrapped his tail around my waist._

_"__Hold on." He smiled at me once again._

___About to protest to this, I was stopped by the most unpleasant feeling. It felt like someone grabbed all of my organs and pulled up. I couldn't breathe or see anything. But as soon as it started, it ended. I now stood (only because Kurt's tail held me up) in the middle of a small medical unit._

_"__Wh-ho-huh?" I stuttered. Kurt released his hold on me. His tail guided me to a near by chair while the rest of him gently laid the injured woman on an examining table._

_"__Ve are in the X-men's jet. At the back to be precise. And jah, you might not be feeling so good now. Some people get that vay after being teleported." Kurt said cheerily. He reached up into one of the metal cupboards and pulled out a needle. Seeing me eye the needle, he explained. "Dis is for her, to ease the pain. Do not vorry, I know vhat I am doing."_

___He injected the serum into the woman's arm and she sighed. _

_"__So you were the one in the ally last night." It wasn't a question. He nodded, a little unsurely. "Why didn't you come out? It was creepy just seeing two eyes watching me."_

_"__I vas afraid that I might frighten you avay if you saw me." He answered quietly._

___I felt a twinge of pity in my heart. He must be very sensitive of his appearance and it was sad to hear that he actually worries about scaring people away. I edged closer to him._

_"__Well, I think the floating eyes were a lot scarier than seeing a person attached to them." I replied. He looked at me uncertainly._

_"__You vere right, you aren't like everyone else." He said._

_A slight shake of my shoulder pulled me from my reminiscing. The greasy waitress had come back, with a slight annoyed look on her face._

_"Can I take your order now?" She asked._

_"Uh, no, I need a little more time. Can I have a water for now?" Water was free, luckily. The waitress made an annoyed sigh and walked away._

_Kurt and me grew close after that. He took time off from the X-men to come visit me in my hometown. In public he wore this image inducer thing, it made a holographic disguise of a human form when we were in public, but alone he went in his true form (because I asked). It was wonderful, the time we spent together. He was kind, sweet, funny. He took me to amazing places, because of his mutant ability. Everything was going fine, until my parents found out._

_It seemed that all at once everyone in town knew that Kurt was a mutant. My friends shunned me, not wanting to be seen with the 'mutie lover'. My parents and I fought, they thought I was just going through some rebellious stage to date a mutant. They forbid me from seeing him. Not that I obeyed them._

_Then one night, a day before my eighteenth birthday, Kurt showed up below my window. He was in horrible shape. Apparently a group of local teenage boys jumped him on his way over and beat him. The fool, he came all the way from New York to give me a stupid birthday present and got hurt because of it. I took him to my church's attic and helped him heal._

_That was the last time I saw him…_

_"Listen, if you're not going to order something than you're going to have to leave." The waitress had come back, flanked by two large busboys. _

_I eyed the three of them, wondering if they would actually physically harm me if I didn't leave on my own. I wasn't willing to take that chance in my condition. I slowly got up from the table._

_"Alright, I'll go." I said coolly. I took my time adjusting my scarf, mitts and hat, just to erk them._

_I looked around the café one final time. My eyes lingered on the television for a moment. It was a news report about some sentinels "serving the public" by taking in some mutants that were being harboured at a local bakery. The bakery looked familiar, it took me a minute to realise that it was only a block from this café…_

_Suddenly a sleek black jet came on the screen. A door opened and people flew out of it. Three women, one with red hair, one with white hair and another with auburn and white streaks. Each women carried another person in flight. A man followed the women out of the plane, but he seemed to be free falling instead of flying. Three shiny metal claws sprung out of each of his fists as he aimed his fall towards one of the sentinels._

_I felt my chest tighten and my heart race as I saw puffs of purple smoke appear in a linear line, heading towards a sentinel. I put my hand protectively over my stomach, not sure what I was feeling._

_Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler of the X-men, was only a block away. This is the closest we've been to each other in almost six months._

_ xXx_

___Like? Dislike? Please review!_


	2. Chapter 2

_ xXx_

_It took me all of half a second to run out the door. On the street people were screaming and running away, shoving into me as I pushed myself in the other direction. People didn't take care to not bump into me, but I hardly noticed. I barely knew what I was doing. Running towards a fight involving mutants and giant robots? Was I insane? And after sending Kurt away all those months ago, what did I expect now?_

_But still I carried on, running._

_When I finally got to the fighting zone, it was a lot to take in. Buildings were crumpling and people were still fighting to get away. Some of the X-men worked on getting people to get to safety while also avoiding shots from MRD and the sentinels. The X-men were falling, and I could see more sentinels flying closer overhead._

___Where is he? __I thought panicky, looking around._

_I didn't see Kurt, but I saw Jean and Scott working together to take down one sentinel without it falling into a tall building close by. Storm sent heavy cold winds at the MRD men while Rogue took their guns. Wolverine was taking on two robots by himself, typical. _

_A girl about my age was cornered by five MRD men by a collapsing building. I didn't know her, but her uniform told me she was an X-man. I guess she joined the X-men after I broke up with Kurt. Actually, I didn't really know any of them, never meeting them face to face other that Hank McCoy, the Beast. But Kurt had told me so much about his friends and teammates that I felt like I knew them. I was going to go meet them during my winter break, but that was before-_

_"Come on, give me your best shot!" The girl called, waving the men with guns forward. _

_All the other X-men were busy fighting, they didn't notice their young teammate was in trouble. I knew I shouldn't be doing it, but I couldn't help myself. This girl needed help._

_I picked up a discarded gun and moved towards the group. I pointed the gun at who I assumed to be the commanding officer and yelled. "Lower your guns!"_

_They all looked back at me, shocked to see a pregnant girl holding them at gun point. Their shock was a distraction enough to give the girl the opportunity she needed. High kicking one man in the chest then quickly punching another in the face, she soon had knocked out all her captures._

_"Thanks." She said, smiling at me. "But you shouldn't be here. Its alright, I'm X-man, I can take care of myself. Get out of here bef-"_

_The girl was cut off by a falling brick. It landed on her head, knocking her unconscious. _

_Rolling my eyes, I put my arms around her chest and began dragging her towards the X-jet. It was hard, especially with my baby belly slowing me down and having to avoid the fighting, but I couldn't leave her to be captured or have a building crush her._

_When I finally got her to the jet, I was panting. I slid down beside her, trying to catch my breath. By now the X-men had begun winning the fight._

_"Hey cher, what's dis?" I heard a Cajun voice ask above me. I looked up to see a tall_

_attractive male with red and black eyes. Remy Lebeau, or Gambit, the Cajun X-man._

_I struggled to sit up. He reached down a hand and helped me to my feet._

_"Hi, uh." I realised how strange this must look. A girl he doesn't know sitting with his unconscious teammate. "She got hit on the head by a falling brick. She went unconscious, so I brought her back here."_

_Gambit nodded. "Alright den, thanks. I'll just get her in ta tha jet and-" A beeping interrupted him. He pressed a button on his ear piece. "Oui?"_

_"Gambit, get to Nightcrawler now! He's been injured and they're surrounding him!" I'm pretty sure it was Scott's voice that yelled out of the ear piece, loud enough for me to hear. _

_I gasped, "No!"_

_I waited only a second to hear where his position was before bolting to the area. I heard Gambit yell after me, but I ignored him. _

_I looked around the corner of a building and I saw him. At least twenty MRD officers made a semi circle around him. My heart ached to see that Kurt had a black eye and a split lip. Two officers made him get to his knees, pulling his hair so he was forced to look up at a commanding officer. _

___Why wasn't he teleporting away? __I wondered._

_One second he was looking at the man with hate, but the next his facial expression change to one of shock and…happiness? That's when I realized he saw me too._

_The large man that the MRD officers were showing Kurt to gave a nod. _

_"He will do. Put him in the truck with the others." He ordered than turned and walked towards a black car. A small device fell out of his pocket, but nobody else seemed to notice._

_Kurt struggled to free himself, looking at me all the while, but it was no use. One of the men pulled out a needle and injected it roughly into Kurt's blue neck. He struggled a little more, but soon went limp. Two men dragged him towards a truck and threw him in the back. Within moments, all the MRD personal were driving away._

_I shook as I walked towards the spot where I saw Kurt. I picked up the small black device that the general had dropped and clutched it in my hand._

_"Where's Kurt?" I heard a gruff voice behind me and turned._

_Standing a few feet behind me were the X-men._


	3. Chapter 3

_ xXx_

___What can I say?__ I thought panicky as the group of mutant vigilantes stared at me._

_"Scott tell Gambit to go help Kurt, den this fille ran off. Now da elf is gone and she is in de place where he last seen. You wanna explain dis one ta Gambit, cher?" The tall Cajun said, his voice accusing, as he looked down at me._

_"Don't start anything Gambit, we don't know anything about her. This girl might have nothing to do with his disappearance, but might have seen where he went." Storm, Ororo Monroe, the weather witch said in my defence. "Besides, she helped Kitty; let us not assume that she is our enemy."_

_"We have enough enemies, without assuming them." Said a man with an Irish accent. I think he was Banshee, _Sean Cassidy. He rejoined the X-men? I guess I've been out of the loop.

"And you know what happens when you assume," Joked Boby Drake (iceman). "It makes an ass out of you and-"

"Shut up Popsicle." Growled Wolverine. He took a step closer to me, making me step back. I knew he was one of Kurt's closest friends, but I never trusted the man. I never actually met him, but I heard stories. "What happened to Kurt?"

"T-the MRD, t-they-" I tried to say, but my voice failed.

Storm came over and put a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Its alright child, you can tell us. Please, just help us find our friend." She said gently.

_How could I tell them that I just stood there while the MRD took Kurt?_ I thought, ignoring the small sensible part of me that said, _what could you have done? You don't have any superpowers and there were at least twenty men with guns!_

"Let's go, we're wasting our time!" Wolverine growled. "This girl doesn't know anything and if she did, why would she help us? Kurt's just another mutant to her."

"That's not true!" Hearing the feral say I didn't care about Kurt gave me the courage to speak up. I walked up to him and got in his face (not a very impressive move, seeing as I only came to his chin). "You want to know what happened? He was surrounded by a squad of MRD. Some general said 'he would do', they drugged him, threw him in the back of the truck and drove away. I think they had a few more mutants in the back with him, maybe the ones that were in the bakery."

"But why wouldn't he just-" Remy started to say, but I interrupted him.

"Teleport away? I don't know. He was hurt, but the wounds didn't look bad enough to prevent him from teleporting. Here, the general dropped this. I don't know what it is, but you guys might get some info from it." I glared up at Wolverine. "Don't you _dare _say I don't care."

Wolverine studied me for a minute, then he took a sniff and looked down at my stomach. "So the question is, why do you care, darl'n?"

One by one, each of the other X-men looked down at my budging stomach. I blush, then glared harder at Wolverine.

"I just saw a man drugged and kidnapped, isn't that reason enough to care?" I replied. My slight lie would have probably gone over a lot smoother if not for Hank McCoy.

The big blue mutant hurried over to the group, typing away at a small hand held computer. It wasn't until he stood beside Scott did he look up.

"Scott, I can't find his signal, no matter what satellite I hook up to or – oh, Katie, what are you doing here?" Hank looked at me with surprise.

_"Hank, you know this girl?" Wolverine asked the blue mutant._

_"Of course, she's Kurt's-" Hank stopped himself when he saw the slight head shake I gave him. "friend."_

_"She's ____that __Katie?" Bobby said, looking me over. I guess Kurt had talked about me before. But had he told them about our last goodbye?_

_Before anyone could say anymore, a bullet zipped past my head and plunged into Bobby's leg. I spun around, trying to spot the sniper and the X-men leapt into action. Scott shouted orders to make for the X-jet, they probably could have taken out the sniper but the time it took to found him there would be many more wounded, maybe dead. Rogue grabbed Remy while Storm carefully picked up Bobby, both taking to the air. Jean flew behind them, using her telekinesis to deflect bullets from her teammates. _

_Instead of watching the X-men, I should have been taking cover. I felt the bullet biting into my back and screamed out in pain. I fell to my knees as blood pooled around me._

_"No no no," I whispered. Did the bullet hit my baby? Please, no, someone please say my baby is safe._

_I hardly noticed the world growing darker, or the muscular arms lifting me off the ground._

_ xXx_

_'She's coming to." I heard a distant female voice say._

_I blinked, trying to clear my vision. I felt my face and found tubes coming out of my nose. Oh my God, everything hurt._

_"Katie? Katie, can you hear me?" The same voice asked. A blurry face leaned over me._

_I tried to speak, but my voice came out as a squeak, so instead I nodded. I tried to sit up, but two firm hands and the pain brought me back to the bed. I heard footsteps walk away from me, but by the time they were coming back, my vision had cleared enough that I could recognise Jean Summers._

_"I'm in the-" I said quietly (speaking to loud hurt my throat). _

_"Med Bay, at Xaviers, yes. This is your first time here, right?" I nodded. "I suppose you remember what happened?"_

_I thought back, and then it all hit me at once._

_I clasped my stomach. "My baby?"_

_"She's fine, the bullet completely missed her. And the surgery we didn't even have to go near her." Jean said soothingly, sitting on the side of my bed. _

_"How long have I-" I coughed, trying to clear my throat. Jean held a glass with water and a straw up to my mouth and I took a drink. Now when I spoke, my voice was a little more loud and it hurt less to speak. "Thank you. Um, how long was I asleep?"_

_"About a week." My mouth dropped hearing that. "The surgery took a lot out of you. And you did wake a few times before, I guess you don't remember. You should regain your strength soon, but you'll also probably be sore for awhile."_

_Jean leaned over and took a small plastic container from a side table. Inside were two bullets. _

_"These are the bullets we took out of you." She miss read the look on my face and pulled the container away. "Oh, I guess you don't really want to see them. Sorry, sometimes I forget that not all people are as weird as doctors and might not think that it would be neat to see."_

_I reached out and took the container to examine the bullets closer. _

_"No, its alright. I think its interesting thing to see. At least, not something you see everyday." I replied. _

_I looked up from the container to meet Jean's blue eyes. "Have you found Kurt yet?"_

_Jean's face saddened as she shook her head._

_"What?" I struggled to sit up once more. "But you're the X-men! Its been a week! Didn't that device I give you help?"_

_Jean pushed me back down. "We've been doing the best we can, but there have been…complications."_

_I struggled to sound calm. "What complications?"_

_Instead of answering, Jean tilted her head as if listening for something and her eyes un-focused. I waited until she seemed to come back to Earth. She gave me a slight smile and stood up._

_"The Professor was just talking to me, he needs to talk to you. If you're feeling up to it." I nodded, I was still sore and tired, but I might get some answers if I went. "I'll help you get ready."_

_ xXx_


	4. Chapter 4

_ Bare with me guys, this is a looonnnnggg chapter. Hope you enjoy! And I just wanted to thank everyone for reading and reviewing my story : D_

_Dragoncat: Thanks for the review! I love Nightcrawler too and I think its time that he _

_ gets his love story :P_

_Iloveyou: Thanks for reviewing!_

_OddOneVictoriaAndKat: Thanks for reviewing you…two? Haha, really hope you keep reading!_

_Christy-Flare: Thanks for reviewing, hope you're still reading!_

SunshineAi: Thank you for both reviews, I really appreciated them :D

_ xXx_

_After Jean helped me clean up and get dressed, she led me towards Professor Xavier's office. My eyes were wide as I took in the surroundings as we made our way to the office. I always thought Kurt was exaggerating when he said they lived in a mansion! But it's true. The building was huge, as well as being well furnished and decorated. I wondered if Kurt was truthful about all the things they had here, like the indoor and outdoor pool, the stables, and a garage full of lavish vehicles._

___Well, he wasn't kidding about the elevator. __I thought as we stepped out of the elevator._

_Jean must have been listening to my thoughts because she tried to cover a smile._

_"The Professor's office is just at the end of this hallway, the room with the double wooden doors." Jean said, pointing me in the direction. "If you need me, just think of my name loudly, and I'll be right back, okay?"_

___How do you think loudly? __I wondered, but I said. "Alright. Thank you for everything Jean, I really appreciate your kindness."_

_Jean smiled. ____Your welcome, any friend of Kurt is a friend of mine. Oh, and Katie? THIS IS HOW YOU THINK LOUDLY!_

_I clutched my head, her mental voice still ringing in my mind. We both laughed as she walked away. I walked towards the grand double doors, feeling nervous. Before I could knock, the doors opened by them selves._

_I peered around the open doors to look inside the impressive study. Inside behind a big wooden desk was an older bald man smiling at me._

_"Come in Katie, come in!" The man said pleasantly, waving me closer. "Don't be shy my dear."_

_I slowly walked into the room and towards the desk. When I reached it, a chair pulled itself away from the desk and the Professor motioned for me to sit._

_"Please, take a seat. You must still be pretty tired from your surgery." He said kindly. "I hope you'll forgive me for not standing to greet you."_

___That's right, he's in a wheelchair. __I remembered. Kurt had of course told me about Professor Charles Xavier. He is a _mutant rights activist, geneticist, teacher, a doctor; the list goes on and on. But those were things that everyone knows about Professor Xavier from the news. Kurt and any other X-man could tell you how kind, loyal, extremely intelligent, charitable, insightful and thoughtful. He saved Kurt's life from an angry mob in Germany, and brought him back here to become an X-man. He taught Kurt that he was a mutant, not a demon like everyone always told him. Kurt respects Xavier so much and confided in me that he felt as if the Professor was like a father to him. Anyone with that much recognition from Kurt had to be a great man.

_"How are you feeling? Would you like something to eat or drink?" Xavier asked._

_"I'm alright, and no thank you." I replied nervously. _

_Xavier smiled. "You're wondering about why I asked to speak with you." I nodded. "Yes, well, partially about Kurt-"_

_"Do you know anything about where he is yet? Is he alright? Jean said you were having complications, but she didn't explain-" I forced myself to stop talking. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you like that, its just, I'm really worried about him."_

_Xavier nodded. "Its alright, quite understandable. I'll try to answer all your questions. Yes, we were able to locate him at a secret MRD base just outside Phoenix, Arizona."_

_"Then why haven't you got him back yet? You're the X-men!" I said, digging my nails into my leg._

_The professor sighed before answering. "Unfortunately we have dealt with this particular branch of the MRD before. They are not just about rounding up mutants but trying to create a…cure."_

_"A cure?" I repeated outraged. "But, mutants are some ____disease __to be fixed with a vaccination and a couple of Aspirins! _

_"Unfortunately not everyone sees mutants that way. And in some cases I'm sure some mutants would see a 'cure' as a blessing, in which case I could respect their wishes to willingly take it. But rounding up mutants and experimenting on them is not acceptable."_

_"Is that what they're doing to Kurt? Experimenting on him?" I could hardly control the volume of my voice now. _

_Xavier nodded. "In most cases we would have had him and the others out and the facility shut down ages ago but there have been complications."_

___Again with the complications! __I thought. I took a couple of deep breathes before I continued. "What complications?"_

_"Part of the process is a brain washing technique. A back up plan if there methods of disabling the mutants' powers fail. It makes the mutants hate themselves and their kind, makes them forget themselves and sheep like so the humans working there can control them with no difficulties." The professor said sadly._

___Everyone goes on about how mutants are monsters and demons, but their not the ones kidnapping, killing, experimenting on people and brainwashing, are they? What does that make us? __I thought bitterly, hating myself and other people._

_"Is Kurt…brainwashed?" I asked._

_"Though we have no way of making sure of his condition at the moment because they have found a way to block telepaths and psychics, I'm afraid we have to fear for the worst. Though I did give Kurt some training on preventing brainwashing, he has been with them for awhile." Xavier said. "We can't go in there until we have found away to safely stop the MRD's control over the prisoners. We believe that if we have enough powerful psychics with us, we might have a chance. As well, my research has led me to the theory that face recognition might help with the process."_

_"Pardon?" I asked, feeling dense._

_"The brain is a powerful thing, memory one of the most used features. You use your memory for everything. I believe that if we have something that holds a powerful enough memory, the chances of getting the victim back to normal will be easier." Xavier explained. "That's where you come in."_

_"Me?"_

_ "You mean a great deal to Kurt. If it's alright with you, I'd like your help in helping him. We won't put you in harms way of course; physically you'd be quite safe. But it could be very emotionally painful to see a loved one in this condition. I won't force you into anything you're not comfortable with." Xavier said, his intense blue eyes on me._

_"I'll do whatever I can to help Kurt." I said assertively. _

_"I'm very glad to hear that." Xavier smiled at me. "Now that we have that settled, we have other things to discuss. I'd like to invite you to stay with us here at the mansion."_

_"Stay here?" I repeated, not sure if I heard right. This was a place for mutants, which I'm defiantly not. Once upon a time I used to dream of leaving my racist town to come live with Kurt, but things have changed. "Oh, no I couldn't."_

_"We have lots of room for you. You would have the best of care for both you and your child." Xavier persuaded. _

_The thought of having a safe place for my baby and the proper care for her (back in the MedBay I had been in too much of a shock to realize what Jean had told me about the sex of my baby, but now I knew and was happy about it) was all I thought about the past months. I hated living on the dangerous streets of the city, trying to find shelter and food for us both, but I can't take the Professor's charity. _

_"I know you and Kurt didn't leave on the best of terms," The professor said gently. "but I also know how much you both still care for each other. I'm sure the two of you could work things out to live in harmony in the mansion, at least for the baby's sake."_

_My eyes started to water and I looked down and my feet._

_"My dear, what is the matter?" Xavier asked, wheeling around the desk to come to my side. He put a comforting hand on my shoulder and handed me a tissue. _

_"K-Kurt doesn't know, he doesn't know about-" I stuttered. I took a deep breath before continuing. "He doesn't know about…the baby. I never told him."_

_After a few moments the professor finally spoke. "Ah, I see."_

_More tears ran down my face. "No you don't see! Professor, I can't, not after how I, not after what happened, I just…can't."_

_"Shh, shh." Xavier shushed soothingly. "Katie, if you want I can see what happened between the two of you. It might help, having someone to council you. It is your decision."_

_I took a few deep, shuddering breaths. The idea of someone being in my mind made me uneasy, but Xavier reminded me so much of my grandfather. We were so close, and I could tell him anything. I was more close to him than my real father. If he hadn't died the previous year I would probably be living with him now._

_I nodded. The professor closed his eyes and told me to relax, to think back to what happened while assuring me that if there was something I wished for him not to see then I should just put up a mental door and he would not look there. I closed my eyes as Xavier put his forehead to mine._

___I was standing in my bedroom and looking at myself in the mirror, shivering. I had never been more ashamed of myself, never hated myself more than now. How could I do this? I thought I was smarter than this, I never should have-_

___I sighed and turned to stand sideways. There was no sign of the life within me yet. Thank God. I need time to figure this out._

___I have no life, no future. I told myself, feeling ready to cry once again._

_"__Katie? Are you ready yet?" My mother called through the door. "You're supposed to be at the animal shelter by now. You shouldn't have volunteered there if you didn't mean to show up."_

_"__I've still got time Mum. I'll be out in a second." I called back in a fake cheery voice. _

___My mother was wrong. Though I was supposed to go to the animal shelter today, they weren't expecting met for another couple hours. I had told my family that they had changed the schedule so that I could stop by the church to bring food to and see Kurt._

___Kurt. I felt my chest tighten. _

___He didn't know. I know I should tell him, he deserves to know. And maybe he would make it better some how. But I've seen enough cases in my school where a girl gets pregnant and her boyfriend dumps her as soon as he knows. I don't think Kurt would do that, but I guess all those other girls thought that their boyfriend was the same way._

_"__Ugh," I sighed, flopping onto my bed._

___I can't deal with this. I shouldn't ____have ____to deal with this. _

___A thousand thoughts flew through my head as I rode my motorcycle to the old church, not being able to actually concentrate on one before another raced in to take its place. That and all the emotions that I had been feeling since I found out didn't help._

___Every thought and feeling increased with every second I got closer to Kurt._

___I pulled up to the old church and sighed. I knew I had to do this, but that didn't make it any easier._

___I unlocked the door with a key my minister gave me while I was volunteering here during the food drive (I should probably return it sometime soon, I thought absently). Usually I just had Kurt teleport me up to the attic, but I was trying to stall for as long as I could. Trudging up the stairs to where the pull down latter was, my heart pounding. I actually stopped on the latter for a moment just to put my forehead on the bar above me, wondering if I ever had to do something this hard before._

___When I reached the attic, I saw Kurt hanging upside down from one of the rafters, reading the book I dropped off for him on my last visit. He was still pretty banged up from his attack and he walked with a crutch, but he was doing better. He had the strength to teleport now at least. His glowing yellow eyes looked up from the pages and he showed fangs as he beamed. He dropped the book and teleported to the beam above my head._

_"__Katie! You took forever to come!" He said energetically. "I've been thinking about something since you left."_

_"__Kurt, I-" I started out weakly, but Kurt continued._

___He lowered himself so that he was at eye level with me, upside down. "I heard a vumour that Spider-man does this with his girlfriend, and I vant to try it!"_

_"__No Kurt, not, not right now." I said, avoiding eye contact._

_"__Oh, alvight, you can be the one vho gets to hang upside down." Kurt allowed._

_"__No, that's not what I- never mind. We need to talk Kurt." I said, wishing he would just be serious for once._

___His pointed blue tail gently pulled up my chin. _

_"__First, kiss me." Kurt said in a cheesy Mexican voice._

___Though it was funny hearing Kurt's German accented voice attempting a Mexican one, I didn't even smile._

_"__Kurt-"_

_"__Kiss me."_

_"__We really have to-"_

_"__Kiss me?"_

_"__I'm serious! We need to-"_

_"__Kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me," Kurt sang._

_"__Oh my Go-" Maybe not the best place to take the Lord's name in vain, I thought sheepishly. _

_"__Alright!" I gave in. I pressed my lips against his. _

___When we broke apart, Kurt swung gently from the beam, with a goofy look on his face. "Vow, I now know vhat it veels like to be Spider-man."_

___I almost laughed. I loved Kurt's sense of humour. Actually, I loved everything about him. And when he came to me two weeks ago, bloody and broken, I was so afraid of losing him. For a short while I imagined life without him and it scared the hell out of me. It still angered me so much that people would be evil enough to try to kill a man just because he was a mutant._

___A mutant dating a human girl…_

___Kurt was always going on about how much danger he puts me in by him being an X-man, but I never really thought about what kind of danger I put him in. Sure, he had enemies like Magneto, the Brotherhood, Friends of Humanity, a couple alien species; but they never attacked me before. The humans that I went to school with did attack him._

___And if it was known that I'm carrying his child…_

_"__Kurt, I'm-I'm sorry. B-but we can't, I mean, its not going to," My voice failed and my eyes began to water._

_"__Katie?" Kurt asked in a concerned voice. He dropped from the beam to stand in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders._

___I have to do this._

___I took a deep breath and looked into Kurt's eyes, feeling my heart break._

_" __Kurt, we can't see each other any more." I said, trying to keep my voice firm._

_"__Vhat? Katie, vhat's vrong? Are you alvight?" Kurt sounded so hurt, I just wanted to say 'Just kidding! Let's do the Spider-man kiss again, but this time I'll hang upside down". But I couldn't._

_"__Its just not going to work." I said, keeping my voice emotionless._

_"__But vhy? Katie, you are not serious, vight? Ja mean, I thought, after vhat ve did…I thought we were supposed to be … together." Kurt was sounding more hurt by the moment. "Did I do something vrong?"_

___No, no! Of course not! Its what __I ____did. I thought but instead I said something that would truly end this. If I could make him hate me, then this wouldn't hurt so much for him. And maybe, for me too._

_"__I can't be with a mutant." I couldn't look him in the eye when I said this. I felt him step back from me. "I'm a human. I have, I have to think of my future. I can't be seen with one of you."_

___Had heard anyone say something so stupid and cruel, I would have slapped them. I was disgusted with myself, but I knew (I think) that this was the only way to keep Kurt safe._

___Kurt stood there for a moment in silence._

_"__If that is how you veally feel frauline," Kurt said in the same hurt voice. God, I wish he would yell or get angry! Anything would be better than hearing how hurt he was. "But I vant you to know, I don't believe it. Ve could not have veen together all this time if you believed one vord of vhat you said."_

_"__I meant it, every word." I said in the emotionless voice. _

_"__Goodbye Katie." Kurt stepped closer and for a moment I thought he was going to kiss my cheek, but he must have changed his mind. When I finally built up the nerve, I looked up to see Kurt was gone._

___I stayed up in the church attic for the rest of the day, wishing he'd come back._

_The Professor brought us back from my memories and I found myself crying._

_"Now you can see why we can't be together." I said curtly, quickly wiping my eyes._

_"What happened to Kurt wasn't your fault Katie," Xavier said. "Those boys would have just come up with another excuse to hurt him."_

_"You can't know that!" I insisted. "My father took a baseball bat to Kurt when he found out we were together. He didn't like mutants, but he wouldn't assault one if he saw one walking down the street."_

_"Things are different here Katie. You'll be safe." Xavier promised._

_I shook my head. "I can't expect him to take me back, not after the things I've said." _

_I stood up from the chair. "Thank you for your offer."_

_"How about just until you help Kurt? You can stay here and after we can help you find housing and a job." Xavier persuaded. "You can't expect us to just let you go back into the streets in your condition. If not for yourself, but your child's sake."_

_I thought a moment. I felt horrible knowing that I wasn't providing for my daughter and putting her in harms way by being on the streets, and the Professor knew that._

_"I can't accept charity." I insisted. _

_"If it makes you feel better you can accept a job here to 'earn your keep'." The Professor smiled. "Welcome to The Xavier Institute."_

_ xXx_


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, sorry for not writing in such a long time. Now that school is almost over I can update more often. Thanks for being so patient! Sorry also about this chapter, its going to be pretty weak, but only so I can get on with the story : )

J.C Posch

xXx

I entered my room wearily. I was so tired I could barely get my key in the door and turn. I dragged myself to my bed and drooped into the soft covers. I sighed a breath of relief. I didn't know if it was being pregnant or my working hours mixed with my school work that was making me tired. Most likely it was a combination.

My days were packed. I woke up at five thirty each morning to get dressed and go down to the kitchens to begin making breakfast for the students and staff with the cafeteria staff. I was kind of a lousy cook, so they set me on things that I couldn't mess up, like peeling potatoes or mixing pancake batter. After serving breakfast in the serving lines, I help clean up the kitchen and the dinning area. They give me an hour off then to get my own breakfast, which I eat over my text books as I finish my homework. I'm not officially enrolled in any classes here, but Professor Xavier arranged it so I could finish high school via E-learning and self tutoring. When I'm not cleaning rooms, doing laundry or helping at meal times, I'm working towards getting my high school diploma. I understand the material and Hank McCoy is always willing to explain the parts I don't, but there's just so much to learn and no time to do it. I wish I wasn't so much of a nerd and enjoyed learning, than I wouldn't be missing school so much.

Whenever I can, I'm down in the MedBay. I love the medical field and am fascinated by everything in it. Before all this started, I was certain I was going to either be an emergency room doctor or a paramedic. Now, I thought all I can hope for is cleaning the medical area of the school, but Dr. Hank McCoy gave me hope.

I was making up beds one day in the bay and one of the students who were in for a broken arm sustained during flying practice started gasping for air. He looked over at me with wide scared eyes as he clasped at his throat. His friend who had brought him a card and balloons backed away from him, looking equally as scared.

"What did I do?" He asked, panicking.

I looked around for Dr. McCoy or any other of the medical staff, only to find no one in the area. The boy was now starting to go purple, so I hurried over.

"Do you know what happened?" I asked, trying to sound calm.

"No, I was just bringing him some junk and he started wheezing." The boy answered. "Can you help him?"

"I'll try my best. Now, go find Dr. McCoy and explain what's happening." The boy rushed off, leaving me with the suffocating boy. I was trying to think, what set him off? The acute onset and symptoms point to anaphylactic shock, but to wh-

The balloons.

I sat the boy up and made him look at me.

"Do you have allergies? Just nod yes or no." I asked.

The boy nodded.

"Do you know if you're allergic to latex?" I asked.

The boy could barely nod now, his eyes rolling into their sockets. I had to act fast. As a first responder I really wasn't allowed to administer medication, only assist with it. But this was an emergency. I sprinted over to the drawer where I put the new order of epi-pens the other day and pulled one out. Bringing it back to the boy, I took off the coverings and stabbed it into his outer leg. After holding it there for ten seconds, I pulled it out. Soon after he started breathing easily. Just to be sure, I attached an oxygen tank to him to help him breathe easier and kept an extra epi-pen close in case he needed another.

"Well, you handled yourself well." I heard an amused voice say behind me. I turned to see Hank McCoy walk past me and check the boy's vitals while a nurse checked to make sure he had the right flow rate of oxygen. Would he be mad that I acted?

"I-I'm sorry. He couldn't breathe and I didn't know when you'd come, so I- I'm really sorry." I apologized.

"Do you know what was wrong with him?" McCoy asked, looking at me through his glasses.

"I-what?" I asked, thinking I must have been hearing wrong. He gave me a patient look, waiting for the answer. "Um, it seemed he was going into anaphylactic shock. He said he has an allergy to latex, so the balloons must have set him off."

The boy nodded eagerly with the NRM still on his face.

"And where did you learn about this?" McCoy asked, genuinely interested.

"At my old school we had this health care class offered, it was taught by this part time paramedic." I answered. "Um, I'm first aid and EMR trained."

"Wonderful. Come with me please, Katie. Leslie, please look after Jeremy here and dispose of those balloons." Dr. McCoy asked politely then walked to his office. I hurried to follow, leaving the one boy apologizing repeatedly to his friend.

I entered his office and sat down in the chair he gestured to. It was there that he offered me a type of internship in the MedBay, I still had my job here at the school and my homework, but whenever I could manage it I would come down here to observe the doctors' and nurses, and try different skills once my supervisors' thought it was appropriate.

Of course, this would add a load more work to my busy schedule, but if I wanted to learn, this was the only way.

Sometimes I think everything would be easier if I had at least one friend here. Hank is usually too busy to spend time with me outside the Bay and Xavier is the same as he's trying to run a school. Its not like people are throwing rotten vegetables at me or calling me rude names to my face, but they aren't exactly that welcoming either. But why should they? I'm a human in a mutant school. They all have been treated badly by humans at some point in time and expect me to think they're monsters as well. And teenage mothers aren't usually the most popular girls in the school. Its like they think they catch something from me. And to boot I'm the girl that broke Nightcrawler's heart, that doesn't make a friend of the X-men.

I'm so alone.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me again tonight, huh kid?" I asked quietly, rubbing my swollen stomach.

Then the most astonishing thing happened. There was a rhythmic knock at the door and then a girl with a brunette ponytail phased through my door to stand in my room, grinning at me.

"Hey, Katie, right?" Kitty asked, offering her hand to me. "Wanna get a bite to eat?"

xXx

"I am going to ask this one more time." The general said slowly, breathing heavily. "How do you fight our re-education programing.

Kurt Wagner just looked up from his restraints that kept him kneeling on the floor, his face brutally beaten and shaking slightly, and said "Haben Sie jemals gehört selbst zu sprechen? Es ist wirklich schrecklich."

The general let out an annoyed roar and punched in the face again with his gloved fist. Kurt forced himself not to let out a sound or make a facial expression that would give away his pain, but the blood that gathered in his mouth was a give away . Seeing that he wasn't going to break after two hours of being beaten, the general gave Kurt one final kick to the stomach and began to leave the room.

"Give him an ice bath again, than bring him back to the monitor. He can only fight for so long before he breaks." The two soldiers that had brought Kurt into the small cement room saluted the general at his orders than dragged Kurt roughly from the room through a different door.

Kurt felt a little relieved that his daily beating was done, but dreaded the ice bath that was soon to come. His body was weak and sore, his mind was starting to become the same way. He feared that if his fellow superheroes didn't come for him soon, he'd be broken and under these madmen's control.

No, I mustn't think like that, Kurt ordered himself. Must be positive, must stay strong.

Every day it got harder. Their brainwashing even seemed to work on some days. He forgot about who he was, his friends among the X-men, mutant pride. There were days when he was sure he was human, that he hated the very idea of mutants and didn't understand how his reflection was a blue demon like monster instead of a human. But he continued to fight. He focused on his memories of his friends. Classes with the Professor when he was still a student, Danger Room sessions with his team, lunches with Rogue, the first time Logan gave him a beer. It helped, but nothing made him fight as much as his memories of his Katie.

She was amazing. From the first moment he met her, when she helped that homeless mutant, he knew how special she was. She was beautiful. Auburn hair, green eyes, perfect smile that could light up anyone's day, a petit fairylike figure. But she was so much more than a pretty face. She was so kind to everyone, and had so much love to give. She was so intelligent and funny. She fought for what she believed in, did charity work, lived her life not caring about what anyone else thought. She saw passed the demon exterior and mutant prejudice and loved him like no one else ever had.

She was his angel.

Until…she broke up with him. She told him it was because he was a mutant, but he knew that wasn't true. Someone with a heart like hers didn't care about things like that. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because she just didn't love him. She's a teenager, and teens fall in and out of love all the time. Or maybe because of the long distance relationship they had. He didn't know the reason, but respected her wishes and stayed away.

But when he was being captured, he saw her again for the first time in months. His initial feeling was shock, what was she doing in New York? But it was so good to see her again.

There was something…different about her though. Though her face was thin with her cheek bones sticking out as if she hadn't eaten a real meal in months, her stomach was sticking out as well, and was rounded. He knew he had to be seeing things, maybe the soldiers hit him harder than he thought. But he could have sworn she looked pregnant…

"Alright, get in there." One of the soldiers barked as he tossed him into the icy waters of the deep tin tub. Kurt bit his lip shut so he would not scream at the first shock of the ice water touching his skin. Once the shock was over, he began shivering.

The other soldier looked down at him with pity and maybe a little guilt. He looked away as if that would make him any less of a monster.

"Come on, let's go get some diner." The soldier said to the other, closing the lid over the tub.

Kurt heard there footsteps fad and was left in the cold darkness with his thoughts.

xXx


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys! Sorry for not writing in awhile, but here's an update! I have less work now so I'll try and update every few days. The first part of this chapter might be a little boring, but I promise you, it really picks up at the end! Please read and review! Just saying, I'll be more likely to update sooner if I get lots of reviews :P I know, I'm a horrible person :D

J.C. Posch

I was sitting in Doctor McCoy's office, just off from the MedBay. The office was close enough that he could hear any commotions from the infirmary where the patients rested, but far enough that he'd have privacy to get work done. I was sat across from him, his large mahogany desk separating us. The infirmary was almost empty so we were taking the opportunity to get some lessons done. Right now we were talking about diabetic emergencies, and I was loving it. Beast was so intelligent and he actually thought I was worth spending time teaching. I overheard him telling Storm the other day that I was very promising and my love for knowledge was refreshing. Coming from just another teacher, all I would think about was how much of a nerd I was, but from him it just made me feel proud.

"So there are two types of diabetes. Type one usually develops at a younger age and…" McCoy explained to me as I scribbled down notes. But at that moment I felt two slim hands wrap around my ankles and pull down. I almost screamed, but looking down I stopped myself. Kitty Pryde's head and shoulders appeared from out of the ground, her hands holding my ankles as she began to pull me into the floor. I shook my head at her, supressing a smile and nodded towards McCoy, who still yet to notice anything was going on. Kitty just smiled impishly at me and continued to "liberate" me from my lesson. I just rolled my eyes as I sank into the floor.

"Type two diabetes on the other hand, usually occurs later in life and precautions can be taken to avoid it, such as-" Hank stopped himself. It took him a moment to lean over the desk and look down at me curiously. "Katie, I remembered you being taller."

I shrugged, trying to play it as if I didn't notice that I was half in the floor.

Hank straightened and cleared his throat. "Kitty, a word if you will be so kind."

Kitty's head popped back up. "Oh, hey Beast. What's up?"

I had to stop myself from laughing. Ever since two weeks ago when she invited me to dinner with her, Kitty and I have become friends. At first it was to thank me for saving her before, but then she discovered she liked me. We began hanging out a lot. Unlike the rest of the school, she didn't have a problem with me being human or pregnant. She was really kind, smart and funny. I valued her friendship. Though sometimes she embarrassed me, like when she was kidnapping me from my class.

"Kitty, you know the Professor asked you to refer to us as our codenames only on missions." Hank reminded gently. "Now, would you care to explain what you're doing?"

"Oh, I'm just freeing Kat. A little rescue mission, if you will." Kitty answered pertly, smiling.

"I see." I could see he was having trouble not smiling back at Kitty. She has one of those smiles.

"Come on Beas-Dr. McCoy." Kitty corrected herself. "Kat's been working herself ragged. She needs a break! Please, please, please!"

"Its alright Kitty, I like these lessons. I don't need a break." I told her quietly.

Kitty brought us out of the floor. I heard her cough and say "nerd!". I gave her a fake glare. She was just as much a nerd as me. She loved computers as much as I loved biology.

Hank groaned and stretched. "I'm tired. If I got rid of you, I might be able to take a catnap. Sure Kitty, get her out of my hair." He grinned at me and winked.

"Thanks Beast! You're awesome!" Kitty ran over and gave him a hug before grabbing my hand began to phase us through the floor again.

"Just a minute! Sir, are you sure? I could do inventory for you, or I can read that article Dr. MCTarget came out with, or-" I offered.

Hank cut me off. "Its alright Katie, take the evening off. You deserve it." When he saw I was still unsure, he added, "If it would make you feel better, I can promise to work you like a dog tomorrow morning."

I beamed at him. "Thank you Sir!"

"Now get out of here you two, have fun." Hank called. "And Kitty, please, take the door."

Kitty giggled as she dragged me away.

Once we were out in the hall, Kitty began telling me her plans for the night. "We're going to go pick up Rogue at her room and we're going to get dressed up all pretty. Just for fun. Then we're grabbing Peter and-"

"Ooohh, Peter." I interrupted, smiling.

"Hush you." Kitty scolded, blushing a bit.

Since I became friends with Kitty, I had made more friends. Peter Rasbution was Kitty's crush, and two minutes of knowing him, and I could see he really liked her too. I heard of Peter before, he was one of Kurt's best friends. I didn't think he'd like me very much because of my past with Kurt, but he was very pleasant and kind. I also met Kurt's adopted sister, Rogue. I didn't quite get that story. I knew Kurt's past with Mystique, his estranged and psycho mother, but he never told me Mystique adopted a child after throwing her own over a cliff to die. Very strange family. Rogue surprised me too. She treated me like a friend instead of the bitch who broke her brother's heart.

We heard two people coming up from behind us. Seeing the one girl, I wanted to groan. Cecilia Garfet was the rudest, meanest, gossip queens in the entire school. I had more than one run in with her. She seemed to be showing a new girl around.

"That's Kitty Pryde, she flirts so bad with the big Russian guy I introduced you to in the library. And the prego chick beside her is the slut of the school. She's not really a student, just some charity case the Prof gave a job too. Rumour is she got knocked up by one of the X-men and that's why she's staying here. She's _human_." Cecelia nattered at the younger girl in a low voice, thinking we couldn't hear her.

I ducked my head, my face bright red. I am not a slut! Cecelia has been with loads of guys, I've been with one, so I'm the slut? I despised her with a passion. I wanted to walk up to her and correct her, giving her a piece of my mind (which would greatly improve her fifty two average). But I couldn't. I couldn't cause a disturbance here. I was just the hired help and I couldn't jeopardize my job.

But Kitty could.

Kitty stalked up to Cecelia and phased through her. The Blackberry in the gossip's hands began to spark, and something in her purse caught fire. When Kitty phased through electronic devices, they had a tendency to fry.

"Oops, sorry Cecelia." Kitty said pleasantly.

"You stupid bitch! You fried my phone!" The girl screeched.

Kitty gave a fake gasp of shock. "Did I? Wow, I'm really sorry about that. Oh, by the way, have you heard about Denis? He has herpes. No idea where he got it from, but there are like eight other cases. Hey, I heard you have some cream for that. Maybe you could go share with the guys! I'm pretty sure you know them all. Have a nice day."

With that Kitty linked arms with me and strutted away from the red faced Cecelia and the stunned new girl. Once we rounded the corner, Kitty leaned over and muttered, "Nobody messes with Kitty-Kat!"

Did I mention how much I loved this girl?

We decided to get our stuff and meet in Rogue's room. I waved to Kitty before she phased through the floor (her room was two floors below). Using my key, I opened my door to enter my dark room. Standing in front of the window was a dark figure.

My heart leapt into my throat. With my heart still pounding like mad, I took a step closer.

"Kurt?" I whispered. "How can you-"

The figure turned and I knew this was not Kurt at once. They shared the same build and tail, but this stranger had his black hair greased back while Kurt's was spiked at the front. Instead of a dark blue, this man was blood red and had horns on his forehead. Yellow eyes of pure evil looked me over, while his thin lip curled up to reveal pointed teeth of a carnivore. A pointed black beard framed his horrid smile.

He was the picture of the Devil.

"Hello, my dear." The Devil cooed.

Coming to my senses, I spun and tried to open the door. But before I could there was a puff of scarlet smoke and I was suddenly in his arms. His one arm restrained me and his tail held a knife to my throat. His other hand wandered, tracing my face, my breasts, my swollen stomach. I struggled, but his hold was too strong. I would have scream but his grip was so tight it was hard to breathe and I knew if I yelled, he would slit my throat.

"Oh, a feisty little human." Said the Devil, his laugh hissing in my ear.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I hissed at my captor.

"You know who I am, surely? A smart little girl like you." He cooed, and traced my face with his tongue. I wanted to throw up. "Surely the family resemblance is impossible to miss."

I took a deep breath. Kurt didn't know his father, until this past year. Rogue told me about how Azazel impregnated Mystique, her being some baron's wife at the time and abandoned her. He's been trying to create his own army for decades, and what better way than to impregnate powerful women to have his powerful soldiers. Awhile ago he summoned Kurt and many of his brothers to get them to join him, but Kurt and a few others refused. The X-men stopped him but Azazel escaped and went into hiding. He's been unseen until now.

My skin was covered in goosebumps and my heart hammered in my chest, but I fought to keep fear from my voice.

"I said, what do you want?" I repeated in what I hoped was a confident voice. I shook, testing his hold on me, but it was just as tight.

From the mirror on the back of the door, I could see him smile devilishly at me before he rested his hand on my abdomen. My heart beat faster, as if it was going to explode out of my chest at any moment.

"You don't know how happy I was when I learned my little Nightcrawler was going to be a father soon. Imagine, me, a grandfather. To such a promising child, too." Azazel laughed quietly. "When's your due date, my dear?"

Fear gave me a new strength. I ripped myself out of his hold and whipped out the epi-pen I'd been carrying to give to Rogue to replace her expired one, and stabbed it into his hand. He screeched, not expecting this. I scrambled to the far side of the room and grabbed a lamp to use as a weapon.

"Hmm." Azazel clenched and unclenched his hand. Realizing he wasn't hurt badly, he turned and sneered at me. "Nice trick, but not very affective. Caught me by surprise though, I'll give you credit for that. You're spunky and strong; if Kurt had not already taken you as a mate, I would have."

I forced myself not to shiver at the idea of being with this devil. I looked at him hard, showing no fear.

"That was full of epinephrine, which is a vasoconstrictor. The blood vessels are so small in your hand that that amount of it can close them completely. I suggest that if you want to keep your hand, you'll leave now." I gave him my coldest stare. "You won't come back. You'll stay away from me and my child. Do you understand me?"

Azazel's face contracted in rage. He looked at his hand and saw that it was already starting to turn blue. He started towards me, but I held up the lamp as a warning. He glared at me, then teleported right in front of me.

"You little bitch. You don't even know what you carry inside of you? But I don't need you for long. You're just an incubator for the greatness to come. As soon as the child is born, you'll be lying dead in the street." He snarled into my face. He grasped my arm, ready to teleport me away but at the last second I smashed the lamp into the side of his face. He teleported away without me.

I stood alone in my room breathing heavily, clutching my stomach.

May the Lord protect me from what is about to come.

xXx

I don't know how long I sat on the floor of my room in the dark. Hours. I jerked up suddenly as there was a knock at my door and it began to open. I was terrified until I remembered that if it was Azazel again, he wouldn't be knocking or even using a door.

It was Storm. She gave me an odd look, but said nothing.

"Katie? Would you please come with me?" She said gently. "We found Kurt."


	7. Chapter 7

I followed Storm quickly to the lower levels of the school where the X-men's briefing room was. When we entered the room, I noticed that everyone was already in their uniforms and sitting around the table. Scott stopped talking, standing over a model of an army base and looked at us. The look he gave me made it clear he wished Storm had not brought me here. Storm took a seat beside Beast and the Professor waved me over to stand beside him.

"As I was saying, its crucial that we remain undetected until we have Nightcrawler and the other captives in our custody. I'd like to stay undetected the whole time, but we all know being subtle is not our strong suit." Scott continued. A few of the X-men snorted at that. "Alright, let's get him back."

The superheroes nodded and began to leave. I stood there, confused. I looked down at the Professor.

"Sir?" I asked.

He looked up at me with a kind smile. "Yes my dear?"

Just remembering how Azazel said that made me want to shudder, but I stayed strong.

"Um, I just- Am I going with them?" I asked, feeling foolish.

Now it was the Professor's turn to be confused.

"Well, no, I'm sorry you're not." He answered gently. "This is much too dangerous for you."

"But, I thought you needed me to help with Kurt's brainwashing." I stated.

"Yes, and we will. But-" Cyclops's finished Xavier's sentence.

"We can't risk someone in your condition messing up this mission. There's too much at stake." He said coolly.

My condition? I wondered. Does he mean human or pregnant? Probably both.

"If Kurt's been brainwashed to think you guys are the enemy, then what chance do you have of a successful mission if he's against you?" I asked, trying to get him to see sense. "I could come and help him remember. I'd stay out of the way-"

"Meaning no disrespect, but I don't think you'd be much help. Nightcrawler would respond better to his friends than to the girl who dumped him months ago. You're not coming." With that, the leader of the X-men left the room, leaving me there red faced.

"He's just worried about the mission." Xavier said gently. "He could have said that better. We just don't want you to get hurt."

I nodded and left the room.

He was right. I'm a liability. I could get hurt, I could screw up the mission. Maybe he was even right about Kurt being brought out of his brainwashed zombie state by his friends and not me.

But when did I ever listen to some one just because they were right?

xXx

Twenty minutes later I was hidden in the medical part of the Blackbird, crouching beside a cabinet. Not believing how incredibly stupid I was for doing this.

I snuck into the locker room for the male X-men, where I knew Wolverine was preparing. He was late to the briefing and had not changed yet.

I slipped into the room and shut the door with a soft thud. Wolverine spun around snarling, his metal claws protruding from his wrist. I just raised an eyebrow. Seeing who it was, he gave me a curious look and went back to fixing his boots.

"Yah do realize this is a men's change room?" He said simply.

I ignored that and said, "I need your help."

I finally convinced him that he needed to help me. We both agreed that they couldn't have the teleporting Nightcrawler against them if the mission was to succeed. Plus the fact the Scott didn't want me there helped a little. I had to agree to stay in the jet and not leave for any reason until Logan lured Kurt close enough. He helped me into the back of the jet and into the medical until. Just before he closed the metal doors to hide me, he said. "The elf really cares about you, kid. I hope you can help."

I nodded as he closed the door and walked away. "Me too."

I began to nod off.

xXx

_I waited outside the town's old town library, sitting on the large stone steps. Kurt promised me a surprise and wouldn't give me and information other than to wait on the steps. Kurt was like that, always wanting to surprise me. I pulled at my new white dress nervously, hoping Kurt wasn't thinking of doing anything too crazy. After only a month of us dating, I had began to really like Kurt, but that didn't stop my fears._

_I lived in a mutant hating town. What if they found out about the town's golden girl dating an "abomination"? Or worse, what if my parents found out? They don't want me dating anyone except for that prick Joshua, the minister's son; how would they feel about their darling daughter going out with one of those "devil creations"? Would they disown me? Would I have any friends? Could I get a job here? Oh my God, what if-_

_I felt long, strong arms wrap around me and a soft pleasant voice in my ear. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"_

_All my fears faded, as they always did the moment Kurt showed up. I smiled, but answered cooly. _

"_This is a library, its where nice girls hang out."_

"_No,no,no. I have a much better place for a nice girl like you." I heard Kurt say in a mischievous voice. _

"_Kurt-" I started to warn, but it was too late. In a puff of smoke we left the library's steps and found ourselves on a high cliff edge, surrounded by pine trees. There was a small fire going on the cliff edge to fight off the chill as night began to fall. Below was a crystal clear lake, so calm that you could see the setting sun in it without a ripple. There were small rock islands with a few pines on them. On the other side of the lake I could see a mother black bear with two cubs._

"_Wow, Kurt…" I didn't know what to say. _

_Kurt wrapped his arm around me and sat on a large boulder, pulling me onto his lap. _

"_This is where the nice girls go, Katie." He said quietly. We sat there for awhile, watching the sun set and listening to the fire._

_My senses felt so alive, I was feeling so euphoric that I had to express my feelings in some way. Just let them out before I burst! I turned, still sitting on Kurt's lap and kissed him boldly on his dark blue lips. He was so surprised that he fell off the boulder, bringing me down with him._

"_Oh my gosh! Sorry, I didn't mean to, I mean, I'm so-" I blushed, horribly embarrassed._

_Kurt touched his lips for a second, than said. "I didn't know nice girls did that sort of thing!"_

_I started to babble again, and tried to get off the poor guy, but then I felt his strong arms gently pull me back onto his chest and kissed me softly for a very long time. When we finally pulled away, we both took a deep breath and smiled at each other. I laid down beside him, my head on his chest as he stroked my hair._

_We stayed there for hours, talking quietly, watching that stars come out and calling back to the wolves. My parents were furious at me for being out so late "at a friend's studying", especially since I missed the bowling date they set up between me and Josh. I was grounded for two weeks._

_That was the story of my first kiss._

xXx


	8. Chapter 8

_*This is while Katie is still dreaming on the Blackbird, on her way to save Kurt! Updates soon!_

I nervously moved around my bedroom, fiddling with my hair, tidying, applying more lip gloss. Anything to keep busy and to calm my nerves. I kept telling myself that I shouldn't be so nervous because I wanted this, I think. Kurt and me have become really close over the past months and I think its time that he met my family. Any normal couple has the whole "meet the parents", why shouldn't we?

Because your boyfriend is a blue guy with a tail and your parents are super nuts that think mutants are creations of the devil? A small voice inside my head hissed snidely.

I groaned and flopped onto my bed.

I had asked Kurt if he would be my date to my cousin's wedding reception as we star gazed on top of my silo a week ago. At first he just stared at me with his yellow eyes, his mouth hung open.

"Uh, frauline, jah know I vould love to show you my moves on the dance floor but, vell, I don' think I have a tux. It's so hard to find clothing because the blue, it clashes with everthing." Kurt answered gesturing at himself.

"Please come? My parents think I'm dating someone and they're upset because they haven't been introduced yet." I said, snuggling up to his muscled body.

"And you don't think they'll be the tiniest bit upset by their daughter dating someone vith a tail?" Kurt asked, the extremity in question flicking anxiety behind us like a cat's.

"Well, they'll be a little shocked at first, but once they get to know what a kind, funny smart guy you are, they won't even notice it." Kurt didn't respond to this, probably because he didn't believe it anymore than I did. But I had to try.

I sighed and laid down on the cold roof. "I guess I'll just have to dance with the handsome groomsmen."

I watched amused as Kurt's tail came to a stop and stood right up and rigid. He did not like hearing that. I watched his face become still as his eyes had this calculating look in them. Finally, he laid back beside me and entwined his hand in mine.

"Maybe, I can arrange something." He answered.

Since then I've been going back and forth between not caring what my family thinks to worry about them killing me.

I rubbed my sore temples now as I laid on my bed, waiting for Kurt to show up. I told my parents that he was coming tonight as my guest and would come over around six thirty to head over to where the reception would be held. I didn't tell them anything about him.

My heart practically jumped out of my chest when I heard the door bell ring and my father answer the door. It was very muffled and I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I also couldn't hear yelling. Maybe my dad just fainted or had a heart attack.

Then I heard my dad call up the stairs to me.

"Katie, someone's here to see you."

Oh dear Lord, he sounds calm and cheery. He's probably having a mental breakdown, I thought anxiety as I went down stairs.

I did not see what I was expecting (which was my dad screaming for his gun, my mother fainted on the floor and Kurt trying to escape). For a moment I thought I was in the wrong house. My mother and father stood smiling, Dad holding a camera, both dressed for the reception and talking to a dark haired stranger.

Dad looked over his shoulder and winked at me. "Katie, you didn't tell us your suitor had his own jet."

"Um, yeah, it slipped my mind." I replied mindlessly as I tried to get a better look at my "suitor". From my angle I couldn't see him very well, but I could defiantly tell that this guy wasn't blue and was tailless.

The stranger stepped closer and into better light, "Actually sir, the jet isn't completely mine. It belongs to a group I belong to. Hello Katie." The man smiled at me and my mouth dropped. He was like a…de-bluedified Kurt! He had the same black thick haircut short and spiked at the front. The same elfish facial structures and smile. He was built the same, minus the tail and add human hands and feet. He had a smooth pale completion and human eyes the shade of blue his skin was supposed to be. He had normal teeth and human ears. He was dressed in a nice suit with a red tie in the shade to match my red dress. In his human hand was a large bouquet of white and blue roses. He was hot, but he wasn't Kurt!

"Katie, you look like you hardly recognize the boy!" My mother laughed, giving me a push forward. I was now face to face to this strange new Kurt. He took my hand and kissed it softly then handed me the flowers.

"Well, you know, put a guy in a suit and it's like you never seen him before." I answered. "Will you excuse us? I want to show…Kurt, the garden."

With that I dragged the suited man outside to Mom's flower garden.

"Alright, want to tell me what's going on?" I demanded. "Are you a robot or-"

"Katie, I'm real!" The Kurt-wannabe laughed. He fiddled with his watch and a moment later my Kurt stood before me, smiling his white smile.

I stared at him, then slowly said. "You're going to have to explain this one to me."

"The Professor has veen vorking with the Shi'ar to create a holographic image inducer. It vends the light around me to make me look human. Cool, yes?" Kurt explained excitedly. "I'm testing it for them.

"But, but…Kurt, you shouldn't have to hide." I said weakly.

"And you should half a boyfriend jah can actually show to your parents." Kurt said, adjusting his watch. "I vant to be able to take you out for dates that aren't in the middle of novhere, to been there for you in the open, not hiding in the shadows. I'm doing this just as much for me as it is for you. The vorld isn't ready for us Katie, they are too blinded by their hatred."

Before I could argue, I heard my mother call us. When I looked at him again, he was back in human form offering his arm.

"Come on Katie, let's just dance the night away." Kurt said, in a charming old way.

I sighed, but took his arm and let him lead me away. I'd just have to talk to him about this later.


	9. Chapter 9

I was awoken by the sounds of gunfire and yelling. I woke up with jolt, causing me to smack my head on the metal cabinet which reminded me of where I was. So much for Cyclops' plan of getting in and out unnoticed. Did they have Kurt yet?

I struggled to my feet, ready to go out there, guns blazing. But then I remembered. I'm no mutant superhero or even human soldier, what help could I be? I didn't even have a gun!

But Kurt needed me…

I heard more gunfire than scream that sounded like Kitty. I grabbed the med kit and hurried out of the jet, only stopping to grab a bullet proof vest from the same closest the X-men kept their life jackets and parachutes.

When I was out in the open, I could see hell. A loud blaring siren echoed from all around the base, with red and blue lights glazing on people's sweating faces. Mutant's I never seen before gathered in a corner, all of them shaking with terror. I guess they were the mutants that were too new to have been brainwashed yet. But they looked beaten. Other mutants wearing the same military uniform as the humans with guns attacked the X-men. I could see that the superheroes were trying to not hurt them while also protecting themselves. Jean and Storm were leading a group of scared teenagers to the corner with the rest of captured non brainwashed mutants. I ducked behind turned over Jeeps and supply crates to get closer to where I could see Remy struggling.

"Merde, mon amis! We's trying to help you!" Gambit shouted at the ginormous mutant in an army uniform who was trying to stamp on him.

"Yah turned me into a freak yah dirty son of a bitch! You gave me your disease!" The giant roared, finally getting a hold of the Cajun. Holding Gambit in on hand, he began to squeeze. A sickening crack could be heard over Gambit's yells.

"Just calm down, bub! We didn't do nothing to yah" Wolverine yelled. He jumped onto the giant's back. He slashed at the arm that held Gambit, just deep enough to cause him pain but not enough to hit anything too vital. He dropped Gambit with a scream as Jean came over to use her powers to put the rogue mutant to sleep.

"Why do they all keep saying that?" Wolverine asked harshly as he helped Gambit to his feet.

"I've scanned their minds, it's the brainwashing." Jean said grimly, examining Gambit's ribs. "At least three of these are broken. Rogue! Get him to the jet!"

As Rogue flew the protesting Cajun to the jet, Jean and Wolverine went back into action.

"They convinced them all that," Jean said in between dodging bullets, "they are all humans, military guys. They think mutants kidnapped them before and gave them our "disease" to make them like us. They don't remember anything except the army. Logan, its like there's nothing in them except hatred for mutants."

"Damn, these people are sick." Wolverine growled, slashing a machine gun into pieces and kicking an attacking mutant in the face. "Has anyone found Nightcrawler yet?"

"No, and we're losing people fast. Kitty, Remy, and Scott are all down and Hank's too busy helping them. The captured mutants' are too scared to be any help, most of them are too weak or injured anyway. Watch it!" Jean interrupted herself to stop a wall from falling onto Hank and a teenage mutant who was bleeding badly from the chest. "Logan, if we don't find him fast, I think we're going to have to pull out."

"We can't leave him behind, who knows when we'll have another chance." Wolverine argued. He then held his hand to his ear, listening to the communication device in his ear. "Colossus thinks he found another bunker. He says there's a few more brainwashies there, so the elf might be there. Let's go help him, we're only getting one shot at this."

Jean nodded and followed Logan as he ran down a nearly collapsed hallway. Jean created a shield for the two of them so they didn't get shot. I followed, praying I wouldn't do something stupid and get shot before I could even find Kurt.

I stopped when they did about ten minutes later. We were in some sort of basement. I couldn't see much because of the flickering lights. Wolverine held up the signal to stop. I pressed myself up around the corner we just turned so they wouldn't see me.

"What is it? Do you smell hi-" Jean asked in a hushed voice, but stopped when Logan began sniffing again.

"I wish." He answered before his scowling face popped up from around the corner to meet mine. I almost screamed. "Damn it kid! What do you think you're doing?"

Jean came over to see who he was taking to. "Oh no, you've got to be kidding me! Katie, what the-ah!"

Jean was cut off as a bullet bit into her back. She slumped down, but I steadied her. Wolverine growled and went after the gun man. I quickly turned my head, but not fast enough to avoid seeing the soldier's blood splatter against the white cold walls. Logan retracted his claws with the man's blood still on them, then came back to us.

"Jeanie, you okay?"

"Ye-no." She answered through clenched teeth. I quickly got to work on her wound. It had just grazed her side, hitting just below the dermis. I applied direct pressure and checked her vitals. Her hands took over for holding the gauze on her laceration.

"Go, we can't let them get away. I'll be okay." Jean said sternly.

"We can't just-" Logan started.

"It didn't cut that deep, my vitals are stable and I can control the bleeding. I just sent a message to the rest of the team and Hank's coming to get me right now." Jean told us, making herself smile bravely. "You have to go."

Logan looked at me, silently asking about her condition. I nodded. She wasn't in the bad condition with the bleeding controlled. She could go into shock, but if McCoy was coming for her…

"Logan could stay with you and I-" I started.

"Don't be silly, you need him more than I do. This brain washing is worse than we thought. We need you to get through to Kurt and Logan is your protection." Jean said in a slightly impatient voice. "Go!"

"We'll be right back if you need us." Logan promised.

Jean gave him a slight push and we were off again. We dodged down corridors, following Logan's nose. He had to… take care of... some more soldiers, all of them humans but one. She was a mutant with thorns all over her, and she was in the same mindset as the others. Logan ended up having to knock her out and sent a message to Hank to come look after her once he took care of Jean.

"They really did a number on-!" Logan was cut off when a bullet lodged in his throat.

From the shadows emerged a large human soldier, smiling. He bent over Logan, talking into a walkie talkie on his jacket. He didn't see me, standing in the shadows.

"I took one of them bastards down, never got to the- oh shit, he's healing or something. You're supposed to cut healer's head off, right?" The soldier said into the device, pulling a large knife from his belt.

I reacted without thinking. I stepped out of the shadows and grabbed my stomach, screaming. The soldier gave a startled shout. He looked at me in confusion, which was understandable. A pregnant human teen bent over in agony in a top secret base was a little out of place.

"M-my water just broke! I'm going into labour!" I screamed, falling to my knees.

"Uh, okay, uh" The soldier wasn't able to say anything more because Logan had healed enough to be able to slice his throat. That I saw the whole thing and felt like I was going to throw up as I watched the blood run.

"That was…interesting." Logan commented.

"Only thing I could think of. And it worked didn't it?" I defended myself, getting up from the floor. "we'd better head on, I probably attracted- uh oh."

A new alarm sounded around us.

"Let's move."

We hurried on to where there were a bunch of cells and what looked like torture rooms. I walked into one of them slowly, feeling more nauseous as I saw the mysterious dark stains on the floor and walls. There was a cold metal table with straps on it. Evil looking instruments lay on a metal tray on a stand. I shuddered. Was Kurt in here? Is some of this his blood?

"Don't move!" I heard a voice from behind me. The voice wanted me want to both run and smile. It made my heart pound so hard, I'm sure he could have heard it.

"Kurt." I started to turn but once more he commanded. "I said don't move!"

I stayed still this time. "Kurt, it's me. Its Katie."

"Shut…up. And don't move." He sounded more uncertain now. I saw a red scanning light flow over me and then a beep sound. "You're human. Vhat, I mean, what are you doing here?"

He's missing his accent! I guess when they were brainwashing him, they decided he should be American. But he slipped up, he almost had it back. That gave me hope.

"Kurt, I'm here for you." I answered softly.

"Why do you keep saying 'Kurt'? I'm John."

"No, you're Kurt." I turned slowly, my hands on my head so I wouldn't startle him too much. When I looked at him, my breath caught in my chest. I've been fearing seeing him again for so long, while also needing to see him. He was the same handsome blue guy I remembered, but instead of wearing his X-men uniform, he was in the same army uniform as those who imprisoned him. He looked at me with a strange look on his face. He looked so confused and lost. He looked at my stomach with much more confusion. Then he raised his gun and pointed it at me.

"Come out slowly, with your hands up. Where are the mutants?"

"Right here, elf." Logan growled. He had snuck up on him from behind, and now had his claws to his throat. "Point that gun somewhere else, you're going to hurt someone."

"The only person I'm going to hurt, is mutant scum like you!" Kurt yelled. He teleported to behind Logan and threw him into a wall. "See that? I'm using the disease you gave me against you. How does that feel, freak?"

"Kurt, they're in yer head! We didn't do this to you!" Logan said, getting up.

"You turned me into one of you!" Kurt yelled. He went silent when we all heard footsteps echoing in the hallway. In a puff of smoke, Kurt was behind me, and in another we were both standing out in the hallway.

"General, one of them are in room 139. Wolverine. And we have a hostage." Kurt said to the same man I remembered from the day when they grabbed Kurt in the city.

"Good work Private John. Who is she? What are her powers?" The general asked, examining my face. I scowled with hatred at him.

"Its strange sir, she's completely human. I don't know how she connects to the freaks." Kurt answered like a good little soldier. "Sir, we have more mutants, do you think-"

"Private, our base is falling down around us and most of our men have been taken down. Once we set up at the new base we can work with the new freaks to find you your cure." The general answered.

Kurt nodded. "Thank you sir."

So that's how they're controlling them. Say they are military who caught "mutant disease" and everything is the mutant's fault, and the only way they can be cured is by the general and his scientist. But of course they have to help the general capture and control mutants, so they can find the cure. Sick.

"Let her go Kurt!" Wolverine stood at the other end of the hall, the rest of the X-men standing around him. Jean, Kitty and Remy were too injured to risk coming here, but Scott had decided that his two broken ribs weren't bad enough to keep him down.

The soldiers raised their guns and aimed them at the mutants, but the general held up the sign to hold fire.

"We lost most of our subjects today, and we need more to bring to the new base. Shoot only to injure, not kill." He ordered. "They won't make a move because we have a captive. Hold onto her, Private."

"Yes Sir." Kurt said obediently, readjusting his grip on me.

"Kurt," I whispered quietly so only he could hear me. "Kurt, listen to me. You have to help them, they're your friends."

"Shut up."

"See the girl with the white stripes in her hair? That's Rogue, your sister. The big metal guy is your best friend. The one with claws is Logan, the Wolverine, your mentor. He was the one who started calling you elf, remember?" I continued quietly.

"I said shut up!"

"I'm Katie, your Katie. Remember how you used to call me your Crazy Canuck? I told you it was lame but I actually thought it was kind of cute." I continued. Kurt shifted uneasily. "Remember when we ate peanut butter and chocolate ice cream on my silo, and I fell off and nearly died but you caught me? I was completely blamed you for that because I was laughing so hard at some stupid thing you said to concentrate on not falling off."

"Private, shut her up." The general barked at Kurt, his face a little scared.

"Remember that time when I ran out of shampoo and had to use my brother's old spice stuff, and you thought I was cheating on you because I smelled like a boy? You laughed really hard about that afterwards. Or the time when you were sick with the flu but you came and saw me on my birthday anyway? Remember our secret handshake we came up with when we were bored? Come on Kurt, remember!" I begged.

"Private Dwen, take her away!" The general ordered a human soldier. When he stepped forward to take me, Kurt pulled me back.

"Who, who are you? There's all these images in my head…" Kurt said, struggling to understand.

"Keep it up kid, its working!"

"I'm Katie, I'm-"

"SHUT THAT LITTLE HOE BAG UP!" The general roared, saliva flying from his mouth. The soldiers aimed their guns at me now, but Kurt's now pointed at their direction. In a puff of smoke, he teleported us to the catwalk a level above the others, what seemed to be an observation deck. I took this opportunity.

"I know everything is really confusing right now, but you have to trust me that those mutants down there are your friends. You were always a mutant and these army guys brainwashed you into believing you are one of them. They hurt innocents because of their hatred. You are part of the X-men, a superhero." I told him, our eyes never leaving each other's. "You have to help stop them."

"You need to tell me who you are to me." Kurt said. "Why should I trust you?"

I took a deep breath, then took his blue hand and held it to my stomach.

"I'm your Katie. We've been dating for a few years now." I felt like I was going to cry. Damn hormones. "I'm pregnant with your child."

Kurt's yellow eyes widened, staring at my swollen stomach. He only looked back at my face for a moment before teleporting away. I quickly went to look over the banister, where the X-men had engaged the soldiers now that I was out of the way. Puffs of smoke appeared all over the place, and each time one appeared, a soldier disappeared.

The battle ended relatively fast. The X-men got out the rest of the captive mutants before the whole base collapsed. Jean and the rest of the telepaths worked together to keep the brainwashed mutants unconscious until a SHEILD ship showed up to take them to an institute to help them get back to normal. Professor X flew the other X-men jet to help carry the mutants to the school where they would stay until they were able to go home. I stayed hidden in the MedBay of the Blackbird with Beast, helping him care for those injured.

Kurt was still under the influence of the brainwashing, but he was himself enough to help the X-men. Once everything was taken care of and we were about to take off, I heard him ask Wolverine where I was.

Logan answered that I was in one of the MedBays, and I heard him start to walk to the back of the plane where I was. I quickly walked over to Kitty work was nursing a bullet wounded shoulder.

"Kitty, I'll understand if you don't feel up to it but, could you phase me out of the plane, quickly?" I asked in a hushed voice. "I have to go to the other Bay and help Storm with an amputation case."

Kitty gave me a look that let me know she knew I was lying. But still she offered me her hand.

"You're going to have to face him sooner or later Kat." Was all she said before lowering me through the bottom of the plane.

I hurried to get on the smaller plane being flown by Xavier.

As I worked on Remy's fractured ribs, my mind wandered. Where would I go from here?


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys! Just wanted to thank everyone for their reviews, they're all great! Please keep reviewing, it makes me feel guilty and want to write :P

xXx

The rest of the week was really strange for me. As soon as we landed back at the Xavier Institute, I busied myself with helping the doctors with caring for the mutants in the MedBay. I purposely avoided Kurt at all costs. Luckily, he was too occupied to come looking for me. Xavier and Jean began working on undoing the brainwashing that still affected him, starting with putting him in a small version of the Danger Room. This room was programed to have healing and calming effects on the occupant rather than testing and training their abilities.

Everyone told me how good he was doing. Every one of the X-men went to see him, visiting him as frequently as they could. They moment they were done visiting they came to find me and told me of his progress. Every one of them mentioned how he's still having troubles regaining his accent. Then they would ask me if I've seen him yet. I found excuses to why I hadn't.

Kitty was still in the Medbay from her bullet wound and concussion. It was while I was changing her dressing that she started on me.

"You can stop pretending that you're too busy to see him, Kat." Kitty told me sternly. "Most of the mutants have been sent home or to Muri Island by now, so Hank and Jean can deal with the amount of patients still here."

"Um," I started, not sure how to finish. How could I explain what was going on in my head right now?

"You can't avoid him forever! Seriously, with both you living here you- you've got to be joking." Kitty interrupted her scolding when she saw my expression. I've learned that in the short amount of time we've been friends, she had already learned how to read my face almost as well as the Professor could read my mind. I quickly turned away. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"Keep your voice down." I said quietly, looking around to make sure no one was listening. "I just, I don't think I can stay here."

"You have no where else to go! You'll be out on the streets again!" Kitty almost screeched.

"I can't just spring this all on him. I made up my mind a long time ago that I could do this by myself. This is his home, not mine. Its just too hard to be here with him." I confessed.

"Oh yeah, because everything will be a walk in the park living on the streets. Don't be stupid, Katie, Kurt will help you. Its his right to be in the baby's life." Kitty's brown eyes narrowed.

I shrugged.

"I'm serious Kat! You-" Kitty stopped talking as her privacy curtains were pulled open. There stood Peter holding a beautiful large bouquet of flowers.

"Um, I'm not interrupting something, am I?" Peter asked shyly.

Before Kitty could speak, I answered.

"No, you're not. I'll leave you guys alone." I said quickly stepping away. Before pulling the curtains closed around them I commented. "Nice flowers."

I let out a deep sigh of relief. I knew Kitty wouldn't let this be, but at least I could avoid talking about it, for awhile at least. About to go check on Gambit's vitals, I took a step towards his bed and the next moment I found myself on the roof. I let out a gasp and stepped away from the roof's edge.

"Sorry, my teleporting has been a bit off since I got back." His voice apologized behind me. "The Professor thinks its because they tried to tamper with my mutant abilities while I was at the base."

I turned slowly to see Kurt standing there. "Hello Fräulein."

I looked down at my feet (well, I tried to. I ended up looking at my protruding stomach instead). "Hi."

He looked at me for a very long time. "You must be cold, I wasn't thinking, bringing you out here. Or do you need to sit down? Maybe you shouldn't be standing. Sorry, I just wanted a quiet private place we could speak." He moved towards me, but I backed away.

He looked very hurt by that gesture. "Would you like me to bring you inside?"

"No, I- This is fine." I said, struggling to sit down. "We do need to talk, it's just-hard."

"You're telling me." Kurt said, sitting easily in front of me.

After awhile, I said. "I know, I should of told you."

"Yes, you should of. I never would have left you if I'd known." Kurt said wholeheartedly.

"You didn't leave, I pushed you away. I'm, really sorry about those things I said. I just needed you to leave and that was the only way I could think of." I said miserably. "I was just so ashamed and, I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Get hurt?"

I looked up into his eyes. "Kurt, those boys almost killed you because you were dating a human, how would people treat you if they knew you got one pregnant? It was safer if you weren't in the picture."

"Not for you. You needed me." Kurt said, inching closer.

"No I didn't." I lied. I hung my head and Kurt came closer still.

"What about your parents?" Kurt asked softly.

I felt ready to cry. "They, kicked me out. I had to go to the doctor one day and he was a family friend. He told them and, well, my dad flipped. He got even madder when he realized a mutant was the father. He-he threw me down the stairs, trying to make me miscarriage. It didn't work, so he got his gun. I barely got out of there."

"That, that bastard! I could kill him!" Kurt sputtered angrily.

"I was on the streets for months, I made my way to New York." I explained the rest of my story. How I saw him be taken, how Xavier offered me a job here, how I went to the base to help him.

"And that's been my life for about seven months. What's new with you?" I joked weakly.

"Katie, you should have told me. I would have gotten you out of there the moment I knew." Kurt said. "I would have taken care of you."

"Do you know how many times a girl gets pregnant and her boyfriend ditches her? It happens all the time. You could have wanted nothing to do with me, or you could have made me get an abortion or you-" I completely broke down at this point.

Kurt wrapped his strong arms around me.

"I wouldn't have. I love you with all my heart, as I will this baby." Kurt promised in a whisper. "You almost killed me when you dumped me, I loved you so much. Please let me be in your life again. I'll take care of both of you, even if you don't want us to be together like we were."

I hiccupped, as I wiped my eyes.

"I'm sorry, these stupid hormones are making me crazy." I apologized. Feeling a strange sensation in my lower stomach, I grabbed it. "Whoa."

"What is it? Is the baby coming?" Kurt yelped.

"No, no, its- um, I think she's kicking me." I said.

"Really?" Kurt said in wonder. He reached out his hand hesitantly , only completing the gesture when I gave him a nod. Gently he placed his hand on my stomach. Feeling the strange sensation he said. "Whoa."

I laughed, releasing all the tension in me. Slowly I laid down and put my head on his lap. He began stroking my hair.

"I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm scared out of my mind." I whispered.

"Yeah, me too." Kurt admitted. "But at least we can be scared together now, right?"

xXx

Life improved for me after our talk on the roof, but it also got more complicated. Kurt insisted I stopped working as a maid, even though I still worked in the MedBay. He said his income as a teacher would be enough and said I was too close to be around chemicals and doing heavy lifting. I said I could handle it, but eventually he fought me enough and got the Professor on his side so it was easier for me to give in. The X-men treated me less like a disease, which was nice. I guess they say how happy Kurt was so they decided I wasn't that bad. It felt good to know I didn't have to worry about everything on my own anymore.

Difficulty came two days after our time on the roof. I came back from a shift in the MedBay with Kitty, making plans for dinner, when I noticed everything was missing from my room. I didn't have much, just what I had when I ran away from home with. But when you have only about a duffle bag worth of possessions, you really notice when your sol possessions are missing.

"What the Hel-" I started to say.

"What happened? Do you think it was a student?" Kitty said, looking around my empty room. She was probably thinking about some of the 'pranks' students pulled when I first got here. They didn't like me and they wanted to show it. I had my room trashed before, my door vandalized and rude notes shoved under the door, but no one had ever stolen from me.

"Should I go talk to the Professor?" I asked.

Peter and Kurt entered through the door.

"Good! You're here." Kurt said excitedly. "I have something to show you."

"Not right now Kurt, can't you see my-ah!" Without warning, Kurt grabbed me and Kitty and teleported us away. We found ourselves in front of an unknown wooden door.

"Kurt, we talked about this." Kitty said sternly. "You can't just kidnap people like that!"

"I didn't kidnap you, just gave you a lift against your will." Kurt said happily, then turned to me. "Katie, welcome home."

Kurt opened the wooden door to reveal a pretty apartment. I could see a living room and a kitchen from where I stood. Kurt grabbed my hand.

"Come on, I'll show you around!" Kurt gave me a quick tour of the kitchen, living room and bathroom. I was speechless the whole time. Then he showed me a nursery. It was fully furnished and painted. There was a white crib, a mobile with a variety of superhero symbols hanging from it.

"Uh," Was all I could say.

"Great, isn't it? There's more." Once again Kurt pulled me along to a bigger room. "And this, is your new room!"

"My new room, huh?" I said, fighting to be calm. By now Peter had caught up with us and Kitty read me easily. She saw Mount Kat was about to explode.

"Uh, let's go check out the kitchen Peter." Kitty said quickly, trying to push him out the door.

Sweet but clueless Peter didn't catch in.

"We already saw the kitchen." Peter said, confused. Kitty rolled her eyes and grabbed him around the waist, phasing him through the floor.

"What is up with them?" Kurt questioned. He then teleported to the bed. "Come try the bed! Its king sized." He said flirty, wriggling his eyebrows.

"So, um, remind me when we discussed moving in together?" I asked coolly.

"Uh," Kurt stammered. "I guess we didn't talk about this, did we?"

"Nope."

"I just thought, I'd surprise you. The room you're in now is tiny and its really far away from mine. When the baby's born, we have to share a space so we can share the work load and um…" Kurt saw my face become darker. "You don't agree?"

"Well, I guess those are good reasons. But before you just decide to just move me in here, did you not think maybe you should have asked me? No, you didn't." I answered before he could. Shaking, I sat down on the bed. "This is a lot to take in."

"Katie, we don't have much time left before the baby's born." Kurt said softly. "I know this is hard but-"

Kurt tilted his head slightly and had a far off look in his eye, as if listening. A moment later, he came back.

"I'm sorry Katie, that was the Professor. He needs me for a mission." Kurt apologized. "I have to go, but we'll talk about this, later, yah?"

With a quick kiss on my forehead, he teleported away. I heard running footsteps of Kitty and Peter and a door slam as they hurried away to get to the briefing room. I sighed and laid back on the large bed. That was another thing I had to worry about, Kurt rushing away to save the world. I must sound so selfish and I feel guilty, but I can't help but not want him to. He could get badly hurt, or get kidnapped again.

What if I go into labour and he's in some distant galaxy fighting aliens?

I pulled one of the large fluffy pillows over my head as I continued to worry.


	11. Chapter 11

First of all, thanks to everyone who's reviewed! Your reviews are great and they make my day I've been slacking on replying to them, and I'm really sorry about that. I'm swamped with school, work, and volunteering at the hospital. I'll really try on replying to them in the upcoming chapters. Thanks everybody!

xXX

I was in that stage, in between becoming awake and still dreaming. Feeling a bit of a chill around my feet, I curled into a ball, smiling as my feet became warm once more. Feeling content, I rolled over to try and sink more into the peacefulness of sleep. Of course when I felt a warm body beside mine, I became wide awake. My eyes flew open and I screamed, jumping out of bed. I reached on the bedside table for the knife I've been sleeping with since the encounter Azazel, panicking when I didn't see it there. Instead I grabbed the lamp and spun to nail the intruder in the head with it. I stopped myself just in time before I slammed the lamp into Kurt's head. Unaware of his danger, Kurt snorted in his sleep and rolled over so that his face sunk into his large fluffy pillow.

Taking a deep, I stepped back and raked through my mind, trying to make sense of this. When it came to me, I groaned softly and sat down on the bed. Right. Last night. Kurt moving my stuff into 'our' apartment. Without my agreement. I guess he came back from his mission last night while I was asleep and just hopped into bed.

He doesn't get it, does he? I thought to myself. I'm supposed to be the good girl (minus the whole getting pregnant thing), I can't just move in with a man, still unmarried. I feel guilty, or dirty, or…something! I love Kurt, and it would make things easier when the baby's born but-I'm just confused right now.

I quickly got dressed and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I was hoping that it was early enough that I could work on my respiratory arrest report for Dr. McCoy while I made myself breakfast, but that hope faded when I entered the kitchen and saw a large figure leaning into the fridge. Peter turned around and smiled pleasantly at me, his arms full of food items.

"Good morning Katie, I'm making myself an omelet if you'd like one as well." Peter said, in a voice that was a little too cheery for the hour.

"No thank you, I'm feeling peanut butter on something this morning." I replied, sitting on one of the high stools at the kitchen's island.

"On something? Do you mean toast?" Peter asked.

"Maybe. Or dill pickles. Or dill pickle potato chips." I mused. Seeing the disgusted look on Peter's face, I laughed. "Crazy prego chick cravings. You're up early."

"Yes, I'm used to getting up early. I used to live on a farm back in Russia. How about for you?"

"Well, I used to live on a farm too, but I still woke up at a normal hour." I smirked. "Actually, I just couldn't sleep anymore. What was the mission last night?"

"The Brotherhood attacked this building. Most of our night was getting people out of the building and trying to keep the building from collapsing into the buildings close to it. It was a very busy night."

"I bet." I said sympathetically. "Hey, can you pass me the peanut butter please?"

The peanut butter jar slid down the island to me, stopping before it slid into the papers I was flipping through. "Thank you."

"Pardon?" Peter asked, turning to me. "Sorry I can't find the jar, I think we're out."

I gave him a quizzical look, holding up the jar. "Um, you just passed it to me."

Peter looked at the jar in my hand. "I didn't pass it to you."

I studied his face, trying to see if he was kidding, but there was genuine confusion on his face. I spun to examine the room, working with a new theory.

"Are there any kids here that can become invisible?" I questioned, still searching for the slightest shimmer that would give away someone invisible.

Peter shook his head to give me my answer.

I felt myself shiver a little. I quickly packed up my stuff and stood up. "But there are lots of telekinetics and illusionists here. I better go, see you later."

I hurried out of the room, taking the peanut butter with me.

xXx

The rest of my day was very…off. Strange things kept happening wherever I went. Two students who were fighting loudly behind me as I was studying suddenly froze, staying immobilized and silent for five minutes, until they were released. A large student made of stone was running down the corridor almost ploughed into me because he wasn't looking, but just before he slammed into me, he rebounded, as though he bounced off a brick wall, leaving me safe. And whatever strange food I was craved seemed to just find me.

I was seriously creeped out. Was someone haunting me as a joke or something?

Feeling stressed, I went back to the apartment. Of course, Kurt hadn't remembered to give me a key yet and I didn't ask. I was just about to call Kitty to come help me out, when the door just made a soft 'click' and swung open. I stood in front of the open door for a few minutes before sighing and stepping inside.

"I'm pretty sure I saw this in a horror movie once." I grumbled to myself, entering the place.

The first thing that greeted me was loud strange music coming from the living room. I edged into the room cautiously. There I found Kurt sitting cross legged on the couch with papers surrounding him. There was a stereo beside him blasting that awful music. I now recognised the voice yowling at me as German. I forced myself not to moan. Kurt and I shared the same taste for a lot of things, but music was not one of them.

"Hello, Liebling. Vhere have you veen all day?" Kurt asked cheerily, not looking up from his papers.

"Trying to get this stupid respiratory report done." I sighed falling onto the couch beside Kurt, taking care not to land on his papers. "What are all of these?"

"Paperwork I have to fill out for the mission last night. Not fun, but I'm almost done." Kurt answered, shuffling through papers. Finding a blank one, he sighed and got to work on it. "Or not. Kitty stopped by to ask if we vanted to go out for dinner with her, Pietro, Rogue and Remy tonight. We are going out to this nice resteraunt that opened…"

I was having problems concentrating on what Kurt was saying. Something about going out to dinner because of that awful music! If only it was a bit quieter…

As if controlled by magic, the stereo quieted instantly so now we could hardly hear it. Kurt frowned and trailed off from what he was saying. He leaned over to turn up the music, only to have it quickly be turned down again. This brought about a battle of volume. It was kind of funny to watch, but I was also a little scared. What was happening?

Was, was I causing it? Everything that happened today, they were things I wanted to protect me. What was happening?

My panic level rose. And then the stereo exploded.

The small explosion threw Kurt over the couch, but the debris and power never reached me. Kurt peeked over the back of the couch to look at me.

"That vas…strange." Kurt commented. "Vhat on Earth could have caused that?"

A knowing sense inside of me made me reply. "Um, I think it might be me?"

xXx

I sat on the crinkly paper that covered the examining table in Beast's examining room. I nervously squeezed and twisted a magazine that was left for patients to read as they waited. Kurt sat on the doctor's stool, his blue hand resting comfortably on my knee. Neither of us talked.

We went to go see McCoy as soon as we could. After explaining about all the strange things that had been happening, he agreed with our worries. That I might be… a mutant.

Could it be true? If I was a mutant, wouldn't I have manifested by now? I don't have a problem with mutants, how could I when I live with them, my bests friends are mutants and my boyfriend is one? But it did feel strange thinking that there is a possibility that I was one. I mean, super powers are cool and maybe I could actually help the x-men instead of being a liability. And I wouldn't stick out so much living here, I might actually be more accepted. But what if I manifested and changed completely? What if I lost all my hair or grew more limbs, or just went crazy because I couldn't control my powers? I wouldn't be human any more. What if-

"Its going to ve okay, Katie." Kurt murmed softly, giving my leg a reassuring squeeze.

I gave Kurt a weak smile, and tried to believe him.

And what about Kurt? How would he feel about this? Would he be glad that we were both mutants? No one ever looks at the other side of things, like how a mutant felt about being with a human. Everyone thinks it would be a dream come true for them to be with someone 'normal'. But human's can only try to know how a mutant feels. We can't emphasize with those we love when they are treated harshly like they're animals, only sympathize. We don't know what they're going through. Plus humans must seem so fragile and useless compared to them…

I sighed, and put my head in my hands. Shut up brain, please, just for awhile, I begged silently, just let me not worry for five seconds.

I heard the door open and I sat up quickly. Kurt stood and took my hand.

"Well Katie, you're not a mutant." Dr. McCoy told me. I tried not to let out a sigh of relief as he went on.

"But vhat about those traces of tha X-gene jah found?" Kurt questioned. "And all tha strange tings happening to Katie?"

I looked over at Kurt and tried to read his face. Was he upset that I'm not a mutant?

"Yes, I was wondering about those things too." Beast answered, adjusting his glasses. "I had a theory, but I thought it was too outrageous to be possible. But after I ran more tests that verified that Katie is human, I ran some more just out of curiosity to see if it was possible. It's quite miraculous really. "

Now I was worried again. "What did you find?"

"Well, I did find traces of the X-gene, but they didn't come from you." Beast said gently.

My mind put together what he was saying…

"Are you telling me…that my baby is using mutant powers…from inside of me?" I asked weakly.

"We should run some more tests to be certain, but from the data we have already, it seems to be that way." He answered.

"B-but most mutants don't manifest their powers until they're teenagers! How can a unborn baby-" I sputtered.

"In most cases, it is around teenage level that powers manifest, but it isn't unheard of for children to manifest."

"Children, yes, but not yet born bab-"

"I vas born with half my powers manifested." Kurt told me quietly. "I could not teleport, but my gene vas active enough to give me this form."

I chewed on my bottom lip as I thought. I knew it was more than possible that my baby would be a mutant. I knew she could turn out looking more like Kurt than me. But never in my wildest dreams did I think she'd be so powerful before she was even born! How can I raise a baby with such power?

I think I feel a panic attack coming on.

xXx


	12. Chapter 12

_I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!_ I thought as our black hummer pulled up to the fancy five star restaurant. I had been kidnapped by my so called friends, forced into a dumb dress, and taken out to dinner. I argued that I didn't feel like it, that I had things to do, that I had nothing to wear; but they ignored my protests and dragged me along anyway. On a normal day, I probably would have loved to get dressed up and go out with my friends, but on a normal day I didn't learn that the being growing inside of me is going to be one of the most powerful beings on the planet.

"We're here!" Kitty squealed excitedly, unbuckling her seat belt.

It was the perky little brunette's fault that we were here. While everyone agreed that they wanted to do something to blow off steam after so many missions this week, it was Kitty's idea to get all dressed up and go out to this restaurant. At first the others complained, mainly the guys, because they didn't want to go somewhere so open and have to wear suits; but one glare from her and we were on our way.

"Oh goody." I muttered darkly, making Kurt smile.

Kitty turned to glare fiercely. "I'll let that slide because of the hormones, but you'd better get in a good humour fast, missy, unless you want me to get angry. And trust me, you won't like me when I'm angry."

"Since when did you become the Hulk?" Peter questioned from the driver's seat, earning him a punch in the shoulder. After assaulting Peter, she gave me a threatening look.

I forced the fakest smile I could.

"That's the spirit!" Kitty said, hopping out of the vehicle.

"You know, for such a small girl, she's quite scary." Peter mused, turning back to look at us.

"Yes, its alvays the small ones you have to look out for." Kurt replied, kissing my hand with a smile.

I pulled my hand back and glared.

" I'm the size of a horse right now, buddy boy, so unless you want me to sit on you to kill you, I'd just keep quiet." I told Kurt, not in the mood for his silliness.

"You are beautiful." Kurt said so sincerely that I had to smile.

"Kurt," Kitty poked her head back into the car. "You better get your disguise on before the valet gets here."

Kurt sighed and gave me a look. "Excuse me, engel, but I must put my face on."

I watched fascinated as Kurt fiddled at the watch on his wrist and as a shimmer went up around his body to leave him as a white skinned, black haired elf man.

"That will always seem weird to me." I admitted as Kurt hurried around to get my door for me.

"To be honest, it feels a bit strange to me too."

"If we didn't go out tonight-" I started, but Kurt interrupted.

"Ve are not making a run for it, if that is vhat you vere about to suggest." Kurt said. "Kitty vent to all dis trouble and you look so beautiful in your dress."

"I look like a house!" I complained. I was wearing a red dress that fell just above my knees, with a low V-neck-line and halter top. It was an alright dress, but my huge stomach stood out the front too much to ignore. Plus my ankles were so swollen that I couldn't wear heels, instead having to wear a pair of sneakers. I felt stupid and no flattery from Kurt would change that. It was easy for him, looking so nice in his good suit and his hair nicely combed.

Kitty and Peter looked just as elegant and nice in their outfits.

And here comes Rogue and Remy on a motorcycle! Looking so cool and hot. I'm pretty sure they just dragged me along to be the ugly friend.

"Nice bike Rogue." I said, walking up to her as she and Remy got off her Honda Gold Wing.

"Thanks Kat." Rogue smiled at me. "Yah know what the swamp rat said to meh? He thought HE was the one that was gonna drive. Threw himself a little fit when Ah set him straight."

"Ah can drive just as good as you, cher." Remy muttered as his friends laughed at his expense.

"I'd sort of like to go for a spin." I mused, stroking the bike lovingly. It had been such a long time since I had ridden my own beautiful bike, having to sell it before I left home for cash. I missed it.

"No way!" Kurt, Kitty and Rogue all said at the same time.

I took in their looks of horror and turned away. "No one lets the prego chick have any fun."

They laughed at that and led me into the restaurant.

The restaurant was just as beautiful and elegant as my friends. It was dimly lit with chandeliers and candles, with smartly dressed waiters floating around gracefully with crisp white dishes that contained delicious looking food. The beautifully set tables with white table clothes held important and sophisticated looking people. I began to feel worse, knowing how much I sticked out. I shrank back against Kurt for comfort as a waiter approached us.

"May I help you?" The waiter asked, examining us with his nose up. I guess he wasn't used to X-men dining here. I saw him take in Peter's size, Remy's ponytail, Rogue's white streaks and my stomach with a judgemental look on his face. Despite all of us being dressed just as well as the other diners, we still stood out. At least Kitty and Kurt didn't get scrutinized.

"Yes, you can." Kitty said formally and maturely, not sounding like herself at all. "We have a reservation for a private table, for six, under the name Xavier."

The only way we were getting a reservation would be if we asked for a little favour from our favourite famous professor.

The waiter gave us a look that clearly said he thought Kitty was lying, but when he looked in his book, he saw the reservation.

"Ah, yes. Unfortunately, you were late and we had to give your room away." The waiter told us.

"What? But we only," Remy quickly checked his watch. "We only two minutes late, hom!"

"Yes, well, _hom, _if you wanted the room you should have been here on time." The waiter said coldly. I noticed a waitress who had been watching us roll her eyes and begin to make her way over to us.

"This is ridiculous." Rogue muttered.

"Is there a problem here?" The waitress asked when she came over to us.

"Yah there's a problem, cher, dis guy went and gave away our room!" Remy explained.

"He did, did he?" The waitress gave the waiter a annoyed look. "Well, let's see if we can fix this. We just had a table for six open a few minutes ago, if you'd like to follow me."

We all shared a look. We asked for a room so that we could speak openly and be ourselves. At a table surrounded by "normal" people, that would be a lot more difficult. But still, we couldn't be rude and decline her offer after she went out of her way to help us.

"That would be great, thank you." Kitty said.

As we followed the waitress, the waiter began to leave in a huff, only to trip and fall into one of the diner's tables. I saw Kurt smile satisfactorily as he took my hand, making me guess that my dear boyfriend had been using his tail for tricks again.

We followed the waitress as she led us to a table. As we settled, we took notice of how people were staring at us.

"Well, doesn't this make yah feel exposed." Rogue said quietly with a fake smile to Remy as he pushed her chair in.

"Yeah, I'm not comfortable with this." I said very quietly. Kurt took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Let's get out of here and go for a McDonald's run instead." Remy suggested.

"We can't leave now, not after the waitress went out of her way to help us. Plus the evening can still go well. Can we please stay?" Kitty begged.

She gave us such a pitiful look, none of us had the heart to say no. Slowly everyone began to calm, and began talking. Watching what they said very carefully. Remy and Rogue were arguing about who was going to drive on the way back to the masion, neither of them losing their tempers. Peter was listening to Kitty with a politely interested look as he tried to make sense of what she was saying about the new computer program she was designing for Logan's Danger Room work out. Kurt was trying to engage me in a conversation about his new favourite topic. Baby names.

"Gabriele? Heidi? Hannah?" Kurt pressed. "What about Ingrid?"

"Ingrid?" I repeated, making a sour face.

"Vhat? It is a beautiful name." Kurt defended, his face was so straight that I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.

"Kurt, today we just learned that our baby is going to be super powerful. Do we really want to give her a name that would make her hate us?" I argued. After saying this, my darling baby girl kidney punched me. "Ow!"

"What? What is it?" Kurt asked, grabbing my shoulder. Our friends broke off from their conversations to give us concerned looks.

"It's nothing, just getting internally beaten up." I assured him.

"Ooohh, she's moving? Let me feel!" Kitty squealed, before rushing around the table to feel my stomach. "Peter, you got to try this!"

"Hey!" I protested as others took their turns. I _despised_ people touching my stomach! "This is not okay!"

"Have yah guys picked out a name yet?" Rogue asked.

"Vell, I vas thinking Ingrid." Kurt confessed. When he spoke, I realized that he was the only one who didn't touch my stink'n belly. I wonder why?

Upon hearing this, Rogue and Kitty instantly went into defense mode.

"Yah can't name mah niece Ingrid! What's tha matter with yah?" Rogue asked, disgusted.

"She'll be made fun of by all the other kids!" Kitty added.

Kurt shrank down slightly in his seat as the girls continued, until finally he muttered. "It vas just an idea."

"It is a good name back in Europe." Peter said, trying to help his friend.

"But we ain't in Europe, Tin Man! Yeah might as well name the poor thang Gertrude." Rogue scolded.

"Wait wait wait, the bebe is a fille? So there's no chance of it being named Remy?" Remy asked, disappointed.

Everyone groaned and continued to argue over my baby's name, all of them now comfortable in the environment that was so unlike their own. I let them argue and my mind wandered. I glanced around the room until I say the most amazingly beautiful thing on the entire planet.

It was on a dessert cart across the room. A small, chocolate cake with dark luscious chocolate icing, red cherries and strawberries with whip cream on top. It would probably go good with dill pickles too. Hello preggo craving.

I turned back to the menu, trying to find the same piece of heaven in the dessert section and wondered if I could skip dinner and have it first. My dreams shattered, however, when I heard a shrill scream and a thud come from behind me. I turned back in horror to see a woman fainted on the floor and my craving floating through the air towards me.

I could have died. Everyone was now staring at the floating dessert except for my friends. People were muttering and whispering now. I tried to shake my head no, to send it back, but it kept coming closer.

"I told you we should have turned them away! She's obviously a mutant!" The waiter from before yelled. As soon as the word mutant was said, everyone went berserk. People were screaming and running, knocking people and tables out of their way to escape. A few of the braver waiters and dinners were coming at us with whatever weapons they could find, like steak knives and chairs.

"So dis was a lovely even'n out," Remy commented pleasantly as our group grabbed our things.

"Shut up Remy." Kitty ordered miserably. I noticed that in the commotion, someone had spilt wine on her pretty, brand new white dress. "Alright, I phase Peter, Rogue will fly out Remy, and Kurt you take care of Kat. Everyone meets back at the Hummer."

Everyone followed Kitty's plan, escaping the mad restaurant. Kurt wrapped his arms around me and pulled me out of the way of a flying burning chair.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I whispered, ashamed that I couldn't keep control.

"Don't vorry about it Katie, if it vasn't you it vould have veen one of us. Kitty vould have phased or Gambit vould have blew up the table." Kurt reassured me. "Besides, it is not like you can control vhat the baby does."

In a puff of smoke, we found ourselves in the Hummer speeding away. Out the window, I saw Rogue driving her motorcycle with Remy holding onto her.

"Well, that was a bust." Kitty commented. "What happened in there? Last time I checked, none of us are telekinetic."

"Um, that was my fault. I'm sorry guys." I apologized. I explained the situation with the baby and how she seemed to be using her powers from inside of me.

Kitty stared at me with wide eyes. "That is so weird!"

"Tell me about it." I muttered, leaning on Kurt.

"Your baby has mutant powers and can use them already?" Peter asked. "Good luck guys."

"Ve vill figure all of dis out." Kurt said confidently.

Before we drove back to the mansion, we went through the McDonald's drive through. It wasn't the night out Kitty, or any of us, had expected. When Kurt and I finally got back to our apartment, I fell into bed and was instantly asleep.

xXx

_*From Kurt's perspective*_

He sat on the edge of the bed, watching Katie softly breathe in and out in her sleep, and once again he noticed how truly beautiful she was. Her pale delicate face looked so serene when she slept. It had been awhile since she looked so calm while awake.

Not that he could blame her for her worries. Being a pregnant teenager so far away from home, trying to make a life for herself in such a difficult situation, loving a mutant. Katie had a very hard life and though she put on a brave face, she needed help. He wished he could help her more, but he just didn't know how.

Kurt sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he walked out onto the balcony.

How could he really help her when he didn't know what he was doing? He dreamed often that Katie would one day be back in his life, but in all his dreams he never could have imagined that she'd be back like this. Him? A father? He was way too young! He didn't know the first thing about child care. What if he messed up? What if she or Katie got hurt? What if she hated him?

How on Earth was he going to do this?

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

Suddenly a terrible scream rang through the bedroom. Kurt quickly teleported to the bedside to find Katie sitting straight up in bed, pale and shaking. Her eyes were wide with terror, but her mouth was clamped shut, as though to prevent herself from screaming more.

"Katie! Vhat is it? Vhat's vrong?" Kurt asked quickly, laying a blue hand on her delicate shoulder.

"It was, he was in the room, and he had her in his arms, and you were dead and, and…" Katie broke down crying.

Confused and worried, Kurt sat down on the bed and wrapped his arms around Katie. Muttering to her softly in German that it was just a dream, that they were safe, no one could harm them. He rocked her back and forth until she calmed down a little. He teleported to the kitchen to get her a glass of water.

"Vhat happened in your dream engle? I have never seen you so scared." Kurt asked softly, stroking her hair.

Katie pulled away from Kurt and looked up at him with sad, scared eyes. "Kurt, there's something I have to tell you. Something that I should have told you before. He's after her Kurt, he's after our baby."

Kurt's insides turned cold hearing this.

"Vho?" Kurt asked, his mouth dry.

"Azazel."


	13. Chapter 13

_Flashback_

I was walking down the cold empty sidewalk, hands in my pockets to keep warm. I wasn't dressed as warmly as I should have for a late fall evening in northern Ontario, but I wanted to look nice. I was my birthday and I was seeing Kurt for the first time in a long time. I was wearing a white, girly dress with black leggings and flats, as well as my fall coat which ruined the look.

It had been almost a month since I'd seen Kurt last. But that was understandable. It wasn't very safe for him to be in my small hometown at the moment.

All the troubles had started at my town's annual fall fair. Kurt and me had gone together and everything had been great until some jerk bumped into Kurt, spilling pop all over him, including his image inducer. The liquid got into the device, completely frying it. Which left Kurt in his blue form and standing in the middle of a crowd.

My town completely flipped out. Golden Girl Katie was dating a mutie? The scandal! I became an outcast. My friends avoided me, my neighbors wouldn't talk to me, and me and my parents were fighting all the time. My mom grew stiff and uncomfortable when I entered the room and my father would sneer and start a fight. The last time Kurt came to my house, my father ran at him with my baseball bat!

Things were bad. The longer I stayed in this town, the more I wanted to get away. But Kurt promised me a surprise when he came to see me for my birthday, and I had this wish in my heart that it would be an invitation to live with him in New York.

I thought about moving to New York. I'd miss Canada and my farm, my little brother, even my parents though we fought so much now. I wonder what it would be like to finally see Kurt's home and-

"Take that, mutant bastard!" I heard a boys voice shout, followed by laughter.

I looked towards the shouting and saw a group of boys from my high school down an alley, circled around someone and kicking at them. They shouted taunts and insults as the pulverized the poor victim. I started to run at them, then thought better. There were seven of them and one of me. Everyone in town hated me enough that they'd probably not get in much trouble if they hospitalized me, or worse. I looked around frantically for a weapon, and found one. A old blue pick up truck parked in front of the hardware store. I found it unlocked and with the keys still inside, and quickly hopped in. I wasn't very surprised that it was unlocked, our town being so small that the crime rate is almost at zero, but I thanked God that the keys were left in it. I started it up and blared the horn, driving straight for the thugs.

Seeing a big pickup truck heading straight for them, the boys ran, but not before they had a chance to kick the poor guy again. As soon as they were gone, I jumped out of the truck to help the victim.

"Hey, are you alright? Let me help-ah!" I almost screamed as the causality painfully turned to face me.

It was my Kurt. His poor face was battered, with a split lip, a broken nose, and one of his eyes swollen shut. He was having troubles breathing, from the combination of the blood in his airway and a broken rib. His leg was at a funny angle.

"Kabie." Kurt tried to say. The swelling and blood in his nose and mouth made it difficult for him to speak.

"Shh, shh. Don't try to speak, okay?" I said gently, checking his vitals and trying to assess how bad his wounds were.

"I camth fer your birfday." He cringed as he tried to speak. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wrapped box.

"Don't move, keep your head still Kurt." I told him, feeling his neck for any signs of crepitus. I was mostly worried that he got a head or spinal injury from his attack. "Oh Kurt."

"Ifs o'ay, Kabie." Kurt said, putting his hand on my face. "I'm o'ay. I've ad worse."

"No this is not okay. They had no right to do this." I replied, angry. Could I take him to the hospital? Would they treat him?

"Thbey were jusb scared."

I shook my head. Only Kurt would defend his attackers. I ripped a length off my dress and put it to a bleed on his forehead. I gently lifted his shirt to see what the extent of his rib damage was and cringed. They were bruised and tender looking, but at least they didn't puncture the skin.

In the distance I heard police sirens.

"Okay, we have to get you out of here. How bad is your leg?"

"Bad."

I felt like cursing. I quickly ran to the truck and grabbed a blanket from the passenger seat. As carefully as we could, we got Kurt on the blanket and I dragged him to the truck.

"I'm really sorry, this is going to hurt." I apologized as I lifted him into the truck. Poor Kurt passed out from the pain.

I took a risk of calling my teacher who was a part time paramedic and asked him to meet me at the church as soon as he could with his equipment, and not to call for backup. I heard him once say that he treated a mutant once when the hospital wouldn't take her, and I trusted him not to call the police.

Three hours later, after my teacher had done his best for Kurt and left the church attic where we brought him and promised not to rat us out, I sat by Kurt side as he slept. I prayed that God would heal him and that He'd help those who were so full of hatred to see the light and learn acceptance. I wondered, not for the first time if He was listening to me. I was tired and afraid. I needed a sign to know that what I was doing was right and things would be okay one day.

Softly, a cold hand entwined itself in my warm one. I looked down to see Kurt trying to smile up at me through his swelling and bandages.

"Hap-py birfday, Kabie."

xXx

_Present day_

I sat cross legged on my yoga mat outside on the balcony of our apartment, breathing deeply and slowly. Focussing only on my breathing, shutting out the world around me. Inhale, hold it, exhale. Inhale, ignore the sounds of the baseball game outside that I wasn't allowed to play in because I'm pregnant, exhale. Inhale, trying not to be annoyed about being under constant watch of the X-men, exhale. Inhale, struggling to not be mad at everyone for not giving me one damn second alone because damn Azezel is trying to kidnap my baby, exhale.

I don't think this is working. I thought to myself, grimacing.

"You gave Cyclops the slip." A German accented voice said behind me.

I opened my eyes but didn't bother to look behind me. "Yup."

"You really shouldn't have done that. Ve vere all vorried about you." Kurt scolded gently, coming to sit beside me.

"I needed time alone." I replied.

"But Katie, its not safe."

I couldn't hold it in anymore. For the past week, ever since Kurt and the X-men had found out about Azezel kidnapping attempt and how powerful the baby was going to be, I'd been under 24/7 guard. To go out on the grounds, I had to have an escort of three. To go to the MedBay, an escort of two. To be alone in my own apartment I had to have two people with me! Even at night when Kurt was home, we had a guard outside the door. I never was allowed to be alone. And Kurt was driving me insane! I wasn't allowed to do hardly anything with my due date so close. He treated me like a child and I had had enough of it!

"For God's sake! I'm in one of the safest places on the planet! I'm surrounded by X-men, weapon defence mechanisms, and a super powered baby inside of me! She heals me when I get a cut, she creates force fields! I'm fine! So would you just leave me alone for five minutes, please?" I shouted. I finally looked at Kurt and his shocked face.

I got up, with difficulty and stormed into my bedroom. From outside the door I heard Iceman call to Kurt.

"It's alright man, its just the hormones getting to her."

"ONE MORE PERSON SAYS HORMONES, I'M BURNING THE ENTIRE BUILDING DOWN!" I screeched.

I flung myself on the bed and felt the tears swell in my eyes. I reached and pulled my pillow close to me to hold. I was scared, tired, and angry. This isn't the life I wanted. Always under watch, not allowed to do anything, afraid that some villain is going to harm my baby or me. What kind of life is this? Even after the baby's born, what future do I have? Being wife to an X-men and a mother to a superhero?

I heard a gentle knock at the door.

"Katie? Can I come in?" Kurt asked softly. "I know you're upset, and the hormones are-"

I closed my eyes tight and blocked out the rest of what Kurt said. I didn't want to be here, I didn't want this life, I wanted to be home, I want my life back, I-

"Katie?" A new voice said from above me. It was younger and boyish, and familiar.

I opened my eyes to see my little brother Jack standing over me with a shocked face. I gasped and backed up. I was back in my old room, on my own bed. Most of my stuff and decorations were gone, but I still knew this was my room.

"Jackie?" I asked, not knowing if this was a trick.

"Um, yeah." He said. "What are you doing back?"

"I-I'm not sure." I answered. I sat up on my bed.

"Whoa." Jack said, his eyes wide as he spied my large belly. "You're huge!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I know. But so are you! You've grown so much."

Jack smiled shyly. "Yup. Four inches since you…left." A sudden sadness came upon his face.

I was eight years older than my brother but we were still close. I used to take him out every Sunday afternoon for a movie or ice cream. After the truth came out about me and Kurt, we didn't talk much. My parents did their best to keep me from corrupting him. And last time I saw him…things were bad. Dad had just shoved me down the stairs and I saw a scared Jackie hiding behind the counter, tears in his scared young eyes. I hadn't thought of him as much as I should have when I left. Finding him in my old room with the door shut made me suspected that he still thought of me, despite of what our parents thought.

"Come here buddy." I said gently, opening my arms. I hugged him, pulling him as close as my stomach would allow. After holding each other for awhile, we sat on the bed.

"Where's Mum?" I asked. I didn't think it was a good idea for her to see me back.

"Outside in the garden and Dad's at the church." Jack answered. "How did you get here?"

"Well," I stalled. "I think it was your little niece who's the answer to that question. She has a tendency to use her powers in unexpected ways."

"Ew, you're having a girl?" Jack replied, his nose wrinkled. Then his face became shocked. "Whoa, I'm going to be an uncle?"

"Yeah, that's right." I answered smiling.

"And she has superpowers? She's a mutie?" Jack asked.

I stopped smiling. I never knew how Jack felt about mutants. But with our parents' influence, I was worried. He liked Kurt and played video games with him when he came to visit, that that was before Kurt was outed as a mutant.

"Yes…" I answered finally. "Don't say 'mutie' Jack."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that's what they were called." Jack looked genuinely ashamed. "Sorry. So is she going to look like Kurt? What powers does she have? This is so sweet!"

I let out a breath of relief. I could always count on my little brother to be a loving sweetie.

"How do you know what Kurt really looks like?" I asked.

"Oh, whenever you were at work or volunteering and Mom and Dad weren't here, we'd play video games." Jack answered. I already knew this so I didn't understand. "So when we were alone, he'd take off his watch –face changing-thing."

"He did? And that didn't bother you?" I asked surprised.

"Nah, it was cool. He made me promise not to tell anybody, so I didn't."

I have to hear the story of how Jack found out sometime, I thought.

"I missed you." I said softly, wrapping my arms around him again.

"Yeah, I missed you too. Mom and Dad have been fighting a lot and everyone has been saying some pretty bad stuff about you. When I try to make them stop, it doesn't work." Jack told me sadly. I noticed some fading bruises on his throat and fresh ones on his arms. I wondered who they came from.

"Are you staying?" Jack asked, his sad eyes hopeful.

"I'm sorry buddy, but you know I can't." I explained softly. "Its not safe for me and your niece here, and I'm not wanted. I'm living in New York now, with Kurt. I'm safe and happy there."

I didn't include how this past week I hadn't been so happy, and there was an evil mutant after me for his own sake. I couldn't scare my little brother with stuff like that.

"So you don't miss me." Jack said. I felt my heart ache. "Dad's been drinking a lot, Kat, and when he does…"

He didn't have to finish that sentence.

I went over to my old desk and scribbled out a phone number, address and email. I handed him the paper. "Here. If you need to talk to me or find me. But you can't tell anyone alright?" Jack squeezed me tight. "I miss you more than anything, but we just can't be together right now. But I promise, as soon as the baby's born and things are settled, I'm going to come back here for you. No one's going to hurt you anymore."

As much as I wanted to take him away right now, it would be kidnapping. Once I got back to the mansion, I could ask Xavier to help me get custody of my brother and get him away from our father. I hated waiting, but that would be the best way to go about this.

As soon as Jackie took the paper from my hand, I was back in my new room at the mansion. I saw a worried looking Kurt, Peter and Logan staring at me with open mouths.

"Hope you guys weren't worried," I said pleasantly. "But I stepped out for a bit. Excuse me."

I left the room with them still staring at me with open mouths.

xXx

That night in bed was the first time me and Kurt talked that day since my disappearing act. I knew he was upset with me, and I didn't feel like talking. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Xavier, working out a plan to help my brother and at dinner I ate with Kitty and Rogue. By night I had no choice but to go back to the apartment and face him.

He was already in bed when I entered the room. I kept my head down and changed slowly.

"Vhat happened?"

"Your daughter felt like traveling out of the country and taking me with her." I answered facing the wall.

"She did vhat?" Kurt exclaimed. "Katie, do you know how vorried I was? You just disappeared and I had know idea vhat had happened!"

"I understand, but it's not like I have any control over what she does." I said. I was quiet for a moment then asked. "What are we going to do?"

I looked at Kurt.

"Vhat do you mean?"

"About her? About us? Really, any answers you can give me right now would be helpful." I replied softly.

Kurt was quiet for a moment, which scared me. Then he sighed and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. I could hear his heart beat and fell his warmth.

"I don't know, but ve are going to be okay engel." He whispered in my ear.

xXx

We both felt better after a night's rest.

We were outside with Rogue, Kitty, Peter and Gambit. Rogue was braiding Kitty's hair and telling her a story she heard about Logan and Storm as Peter doodled on his note book and Gambit dozed. Kurt and I were leaning against a large oak tree, Kurt reading a story to my stomach in German.

"Would you stop trying to brainwash our child into being German?" I mock scolded.

"Vhat? It is a much nicer langue than English." Kurt said, pretending to be insulted.

"Not as nice as Russian though." Peter mused as he put down his book.

"Don't worry about your petite, cher, Remy gonna teach her good proper French." Remy promised with his eyes still closed.

"Good Lord, this child is going to be one messed up girl. Imagine how she's going to speak with these people around? A German, a Russian, a Cajun, a southern belle and a Canadian? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to kidnap her to protect her from all of you and teach her normal English." Kitty said sadly, shaking her head.

"What's the matter with me? Canadian's speak perfectly fine." I asked.

Kitty just shook her head at me, like I was a naive child that knew nothing about the way the world worked, making the others laugh.

"Ah dink she's gonna talk like dis, ay comrade?" Kitty struggled to say, combining our accents and wriggling her eyebrows.

"That was good, but Katie thinks Remy speak more like dis, no?" I said, giggling.

Remy gave me an offended look. "I don't know what you're talking aboot."

"We do not say aboot!"

"Is that right, ay?"

"Comrades, let us discussed topic more over vodka and meat, dah?" Kitty suggested in a deep Russian voice.

We all laughed, but Peter frowned. Then he smiled slyly.

"OMG, not you didn't!" Peter squealed in a girly American voice, which completely set us over the edge. We begged him to do it again, but Peter refused, blushing.

I loved these people with all my heart and I couldn't think of better people to raise my daughter around, even if they were going to completely mess up her chance of ever speaking normally.

xXx


	14. Chapter 14

Alright guys! I have finally updated! Sorry for not doing so in forever, but I have a semester packed with science courses and I'm directing a play I wrote for a drama competition. So those are my excuses. Anyway, I'll be updating later this week. And the story is going to be ending purty soon. Hope everyone's still interested! Please read and review : D

xXx

"Alrighty, so diapers, wipes, car seat, pajamas, thing that makes noise and spins around that babies apparently love-" I said, checking off everything in our cart.

"It's called a mobile." Kurt supplied.

"Listen blue boy, English is my first langue, not yours, so if I want to forget the name for something once in awhile…"I started to rant then sighed, leaning on the shopping cart. "I don't know where I'm going with this."

Kurt wrapped an arm around me, or as much as he could. "You're tired, maybe ve should just go home?"

I quickly straightened up and tried not to look as tired as I felt. "Nope, its fine, I'm fine."

Kurt raised a dark eyebrow at me, calling my bluff.

"Okay, I'm a little tired." I admitted. "But we have to get this stuff and we don't know when you're going to be called away on some mission and I don't want to do this without you."

Kurt kissed my forehead. "Alvight, but let's take a break, okay? Ve can go to the food court and eat before finishing."

With that, Kurt took hold of the cart and l either had the choice of standing in the middle of the mall looking strange or follow him. I followed him.

It was understandable that I was tired. On top of being very close to my due date, I had been working with the Professor to legally adapt my brother, trying work in the MedBay and learn all I could before my hours would be consumed by baby care, trying to convince everyone that I wanted to go to a real hospital to deliver instead of a school's nurse's office (okay, so the MedBay was nowhere close to the level of a nurse's office, but it was the same idea and it creeped me out), completely finishing the nursery, being on constant alert for a certain red demon that gives me such horrible nightmares that I wake up screaming every night, and what felt like fifty other different stress causers.

And it didn't help that Kurt had been gone a lot. I know what he's doing is important, saving innocent people and the world, but I couldn't help but be selfish. I wanted him with me because I was scared out of my mind. I'd never say anything to him or anyone about my worries or how he'd been gone because I know he feels guilty enough about it without my help. When the world calls, he has to go, I get it.

We entered the busy, noisy food court and we shared a look. Both of us really hated crowds.

"You sit, I'll get the food." Kurt said, pulling out a chair for me to sit on. "Vhat vould you like?"

"Timmies, a large double double with a jelly donut?" I asked. Seeing Kurt's face, I sighed. "No Tim Hortans?"

"Afraid not, Engel." Kurt replied trying not to smile.

"A mall with no Timmies, what is with this country?" I joked. "Actually, I really don't want anything."

Before Kurt could protest that I needed to eat, I stood up. "You go ahead and eat, I'm going to go wash my hands." I hurried towards the restrooms.

xXx

Kurt watched Katie hurry away, and shook his head. Katie spent so much of her time looking after other people that she didn't know how to respond to other's trying to take care of her.

"Your wife is very pretty, when is she due?" A voice said behind Kurt. He turned to see an elderly man smiling up at him from his wheelchair.

"On the fifth." Kurt replied, deciding it would be easier to go along with the idea that Katie was his wife then to explain otherwise.

The man whistled, "That isn't very far away, is it?"

Kurt gave the man a nervous smile, making him laugh.

"Let me guess, first baby? Get all the sleep you can now son, because believe me you'll need it. Not that I'm trying to scare you." The man said pleasantly. "I remember when my Wendy was born, proudest day of my life."

"Vas it…easy?" Kurt asked, not really sure how to ask the stranger how hard it was to be a father.

"Nope," The man answered, seeming to understand what Kurt meant, "but it was worth it."

Just as Kurt opened his mouth to thank the man for his words and excuse himself, a rough group of teenagers ploughed into him, knocking Kurt to the ground.

"Hey, watch where you're going kids!" The man scolded the group.

"Wha-oops!" One of the larger teenagers turned to see who was talking, and step down hard on Kurt's wrist with a sickening crunch.

The next few moments pasted in slow motion. A few people screamed when they saw him, most people backed away. A young mother grabbed her toddler around the middle and bolted for the door, leading the charge for most of the mall's customers. Others had a different response to the mutant. They grabbed chairs and ran at Kurt. Trying to ignore the pain in his left wrist, Kurt looked up to see a security guard holding a shaking gun in his face.

When the guard pulled the trigger, Kurt was gone.

xXx

I was examining my hair in the restroom's mirror, trying to decide whether I should get it cut or not, when I heard the commotion coming from outside. I hurried to the door, but hesitated before I opened it. It sounded bad outside, and I was major pregnant. A thousand possibilities that all ended with the baby being hurt passed through my mind. But what if other people were hurt and needed medical assistance? I braced myself and opened the door.

It was insanity in the food court, but I couldn't see the cause of it. People were running out of the malls closest exits, others were holding chairs and trays like weapons, I thought I heard a gun go off. Instead of spending my time looking for the cause, I got to work. I went to an older woman who was clutching her ribs with a pained expression edged into her face. She had gotten shoved into a table in the commotion and ended up with a flail chest. I took off my sweater and told her to sit comfortably with it against the broken ribs to prevent movement. I found her son soon afterwards to comfort her until the paramedics arrived. A couple of people seemed to have twisted their ankles, but they didn't look too serious and they could walk with the assistance of their friends. I sent them over to sit with the flail chest woman so that the paramedics wouldn't have to go searching too hard for their patients. A ten year old boy had a black eye, and I suspected a concussion. I couldn't find his parents, so I walked him to the group of casualties (which was slowly growing. People I hadn't talked to had seen what was going on and came over to help and be helped). I stayed with the boy, talking softly to him until a man with a look of relief on his face ran to claim his son.

Finally, when things were settling down, I was able to go look for Kurt. I went to the area that I left him to see our cart overturned and no Kurt. I wasn't too worried, because I suspected that he had left to help people as I had. I bent over with difficulty to pick up our fallen purchases. I found a bullet hole in the car seat.

"Excuse me, Miss?" An elderly man in a wheelchair said.

"Yes?" I said pleasantly, wondering if he needed help.

"You're the wife of the blue guy, right?" He said it so calmly, but I felt my stomach drop.

I tried to sound as calm as he did. "I'm sorry, what do you mean?"

"That young German fella, the one you were talk'n to before all this happened. He turned blue."

I lowered my voice; there were a lot of police officers around. "What happened?"

He told me how he was talking to Kurt when some teenagers didn't look where they were going and knocked him to the ground. One of them, a very large boy, accidently stepped on Kurt's wrist, breaking his holowatch. After that, the mall went mad. A security guard was about to shoot him, but he disappeared. The man in the wheelchair had decided to watch our things and tell me what happened when I got back.

After listening to his story, I sighed. "Poor Kurt. Thank you sir, for everything."

"Don't worry about it. He seemed like a nice guy, even if he was blue." With that, the man wheeled his chair away.

I went in search for Kurt.

xXx

I found him sitting against the car we borrowed from the mansion, with his eyes closed and his head back against the car door. It was dark out now and cold, but he didn't seem to notice. I walked through the parking lot and knelt by his side.

"Kurt? Are you okay?" I said softly, stroking his black hair.

He didn't even open his eyes to reply.

"It happened again, Engel."

"I know."

We sat in silence for a moment, when finally Kurt opened his eyes and looked at me.

"I pray that our baby von't look like me." Kurt admitted to me, so quietly that it was almost a whisper. "That she vill never have to deal vith things like this or be afraid to be herself in front of other people. Do you think God hears me?"

I stared at Kurt, open mouthed. I guess he wasn't really looking for an answer because he just pulled his hood up around his head and closed his eyes again. I leaned into him, holding his hand. I'm glad he didn't expect me to answer, because I couldn't.


	15. Chapter 15

Wow, I'm probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this. Please don't be too upset with the way I decided to end things. I've had a lot of fun writing this story and I'm so glad people read it and took the time to review it. I'm sure a lot of you won't be happy with the way things ended, so I'm sorry. Please don't hate the whole story because of the ending. Hopefully you'll read some of my other stories and my future stuff!

And because I've been slacking on responding to reviews (which I'm really sorry about). General thanks to everyone who has reviewed! They really mean a lot and make me love writing. And for everyone who's suffered from my horrible grammar and spelling mistakes, sorry! I'm really bad for that stuff. I just write a chapter then go "done!" and update without thinking to check for mistakes. I'm just going to answer some questions because I feel really bad about not being able to write the answers into the story and respond to some comments. I don't mean to snub anyone if I don't respond to you on here, its just that I don't have very much time. Know that I appreciate your reviews!

Bamfing Bob: First of all, awesome name! And Kurt is about twenty-two in this. I'm not a huge supporter for 2+ yrs age gaps for relationships, but I wanted him to be a bit more mature. And yup, I have no idea how to write a German accent :P I just winged it! Thanks for your review, it meant a lot!

Dragoncat: I'm sorry! I've really been meaning to write in Mystique, but I never got around to it. I was going to have a part sort of like in the comic books where Kurt becomes human do to her meddling, but I slacked and ran out of time. Sorry for letting you down for that part, but I hope you still liked the story! Thanks for the review!

Captain Mockingjay: Thanks for the review and the complement :D I played around with the idea of her looking exactly like Kurt (cause he be awesome!). As well, thanks for reading and reviewing my new story!

KaeleyRikes: Your review meant a lot! I hope you become a published author one day soon, I'm rutting for you!

Fuzzyelffreak: Peter, Peter, Peter :D He's in my top three! Love that Russian mass of muscle!

Jordylilly: I have to say, I'm not a fan either. In fact, I have a fear of pregnant women :l Just thought this was an idea I'd play around with, thanks for the review!

Cynthiatophklepinger: I think its really cool that your mom loves Gambit Thanks for the review!

Dora, Tatiana K, SuperGirlGwenRose: I'm glad you guys liked that Katie wasn't a mutant! I was worried that people would prefer she was. Thank you all so much for your reviews!

Yulin: Thanks for all your reviews!

MarthaRRLeBlanc: I'm glad you liked it, hope this last chapter won't ruin it for you! Thanks for the review!

lulu9994: Thank you, hope you're still interested :)

xXx

"Cher, why does Canadian tv suck so much?" Remy asked.

I looked up from the pad of paper I was writing on to see Remy on my couch, curled up in a blanket.

"What?"

"All des Canadian shows, they suck. Wipe Out Canada, Canada's got talent, they all suck. Ain't anybody in Canada cool?" Remy asked innocently, blowing his nose. "You got any Halls in dis place?"

I inwardly groaned. Remy had the flu and to try to prevent the students from catching it (students that if sick could start random fires, start hurricanes or blow up the school because of loss of control of their powers), they stuck him in Kurt's and my apartment. I was on Gambit-sitting duty.

"Watch Corner Gas, it's pretty good." I suggested calmly.

"Remy don't like dat show." Remy replied like a stubborn child.

"Then watch Swamp People." I said, sounding a little more annoyed then I meant to.

"Don't feel like watch'n tv anyway." Remy said, flicking off the tv. He then when into a coughing fit.

"I'll get you the Halls and some juice."

When I got back with the promised goods, I found Remy had stopped coughing and a pile of ash where the coffee table used to be.

"Oh Remy," I sighed, handing him his juice.

"Remy sorry 'bout dat cher, couldn't help it." Remy apologized, sounding genuinely sorry.

"Its okay, I know. I can-oh." Just as I was about to go get the vacuum, I felt a swirl in my stomach and saw the coffee table once again together. "Nevermind."

"You gonna have your hands full with dis one." Remy commented, grinning at my stomach. I grinned back in reply and went back to my chair to pick up my paper.

"What you work'n on, petite?" Remy inquired.

I hesitated to answer. I didn't want to tell him the truth because I knew how he'd react. He'd tell me I was being silly, getting worried about nothing. He'd also be worried about me and probably tell Rogue and eventually it would get to Kurt.

Remy opened his mouth to repeat the question when the door opened to reveal Kitty and Kurt struggling to support a pale looking Peter.

"Oh no." I groaned.

"Oh yes." Kitty replied, gritting her teeth under the weight. She and Kurt plopped Peter onto the couch with Remy.

"You sick too, bro?" Remy asked.

"You're the one who got me sick!" Peter accused grumpily. "Give me some blanket."

"Find your own couch! You take'n up all the room!" Remy complained as a wrestling match began over the blanket.

"Calm down you two! I'll find you another blanket." I promised. I turned to Kurt and Kitty. "Is there any point in trying to quarantine the sick people now?"

"Not really, about twenty other people have the flu now. It's only a matter of time until we have to rebuild the school again." Kitty answered tiredly. "Hey!"

Kitty noticed that Peter was holding Gambit over his head and Remy was trying to throw exploding pillows at Peter's face, and she hurried over to break up the fight.

"Men get so grumpy when they're sick. Maybe I could get some sedative from the Bay and drug them." I mused. I noticed Kurt looking strangely at me. "What?"

"How are you doing?" Kurt asked me nervously, pulling me out of the living room gently. "You're not getting sick, are you? You're not…feeling veird?"

I shook my head. Early this morning I woke up with horrible cramps. I thought I was going into labour and told Kurt. They stopped eventually, so I convinced Kurt to calm down. I was due any day now and Kurt was as anxious as a criminal on the run.

"Good, okay, good." He said. "Um, can you come vith me somewhere?"

I looked at Kurt with a raised eyebrow. He had that smile on his face, the one that he plastered on whenever he was nervous and didn't want other people to know. He was also visibly sweating. I nodded, wondering what was on his mind.

"Great, that's great. Okay, uh, vell, uh…" Kurt looked lost.

I smiled and gave his hand a slight squeeze. "While you remember how to use your tongue, I'll get my jacket."

"Right, sounds good." Kurt nodded, seemingly feeling relieved to have some pressure taken off.

Kurt likes surprises, I pondered as I walked into our room to grab the chocolate brown leather jacket I left on the bed. Likes getting them, likes giving them. But usually whenever he wants to surprise someone, he uses his mutant powers to kidnap them and give them the surprise instantly. And usually he is bouncing up and down with excitement, not stuttering and sweating with nerves. What could possibly get him so jittery?

But…I was feeling jittering too. No, not jittery, scared. Really scared. I didn't know where the feeling came from. I thought it might be because I was so close to my due date and the scare this morning, but something inside me told me it was more than that.

It's because of the feeling that I felt the need to do something today. I looked at the paper in my hand, the one I had been writing on all morning. It was a letter to my daughter. Just…in case.

Enough inner monologue! I scolded myself. Kurt's waiting and you'll just depress yourself.

I hurried out of the apartment door, calling behind me to Kitty who was sitting in between Peter and Remy on the couch to separate the two grumpy men. "Have fun guys, please don't ruin the apartment!"

I stepped into the hall, expecting Kurt to wrap his arms around me, say something cute into my ear, then teleport me away. I was a little disappointed when it didn't happen. Not seeing Kurt at all, I walked down the hall and down the stairwell leading outside. I looked around, and saw his figure standing on the hill. I squinted, because he was standing against the sun.

"Kurt!" I called to him.

Instead of responding, he began to walk towards woods. I frowned, but followed.

Minutes later of trying to find Kurt in the woods, I let out an exasperated sigh. "Kurt, enough of this! Either come out or I'm going back inside and" Hearing the subtle whisper of leaves being disturbed on the ground, I turned. "Final…oh no."

Azazel's demon red face grinned evilly at me.

"Hello, my dear."

I felt the needle jab into my neck before I could react. My body went limp and I fell into his arms and then he teleported me away.

xXx

"Remy gonna take a can opener to you tin man if you keep hogg'n the Kleenex box on your side!" Remy said, blowing his nose with a tissue.

"If I have to listen to you whine anymore in that God awful accent, I'm going to lose it!" Peter countered, pulling his blanket closer around him. He softened his voice, making it more pitiful when he spoke to Kitty. "Kitty, I think I have a fever."

"Remy got a fever too, and it be way higher than tin head's." Remy said. He grabbed Kitty's hand and put it to his forehead. "See?"

Not about to lose sympathy to Remy, Peter took Kitty's hand and put it on his forehead too.

"Isn't my fever worse?" Peter asked.

"Stop it, both of you!" Kitty roared, taking back possession of her hands. "I know you're sick and feeling miserable, but you're driving me insane! I swear, Kat's going to come back to her apartment to find two mutilated dead bodies if you don't stop this! I-oh my God, Kurt?"

Kitty stopped in mid rant, her mouth hung open. Just teleported into the room was Kurt, holding the back of his head with blood coming out between his fingers. Kitty hurried to his side.

"He's got Katie."

xXx

I woke up to a nightmare.

I was strapped to a medical examining table, in a small room like a cave. It looked like someone had stolen a bunch of hospital equipment and stored it in a creepy, cold cave. The only light came from a flickering florescent light. There were no windows, there were no doors. No escape.

"You're awake…that's good…would you like anything?" A quiet, timid female voice asked. I turned my head towards the corner where the voice came from. A thin figured woman entered into the light, her pure black eyes blinking.

It was not hard to see the family resemblance. Tail, three fingers, fangs, blood red skin. She was of Azazel. She was very frail looking though, and she wore a plain black dress that covered everything from her chin down. Her tail poked out the bottom of the dress and flicked nervously.

She fiddled with a machine at my head and I heard the familiar beeps or a heart monitor.

"Let me go." I said through ground teeth. I felt a sudden, painful yank in my abdomen. "Ah!"

"Not long, not long now." The red woman whispered to herself quietly as she wandered about the room.

No, no, no!

I fought the restraints uselessly, until another painful jerk made me stop.

"Not like this." I muttered through ground teeth.

"Ah, and how's the patient doing?" A cold voice asked amusedly. Azazel teleported into the room and walked to my side. He laid a blood red hand on my stomach.

"Vital signs are raised, father, and contractions are less than two minutes apart." The woman, maybe in her thirties, answered timidly.

"Ah, not long now, right my dear? You're going to be a mother soon. It'll be a shame that you'll be dead too soon to really experience motherhood." Azazel informed me with mock sadness.

"Drop dead, you slimy, evil, ah!" Another contraction. "Kurt and the others will be here soon."

"Believe whatever you want to believe, my dear. Hopefully it will help you get through the pain, since, unfortunately, we were unable to acquire pain killers."

I spat in his face, earning a back handed slap.

"You little bitch-"

"Father, please don't." The woman asked in her small voice.

"Did I tell you to speak?" Azazel snarled. "She doesn't matter. If it comes to it, slit the girl open and rip the baby out!"

With that pleasant note, he vanished.

"Any chance of you, ow, letting me go?" I asked quietly.

"I can't. I can't. Father needs me."

"You understand that he is going to take my daughter away, then kill me. Do you want to be apart of kidnapping, and murder?"

She didn't answer for awhile then said, "I'm sorry we don't have pain killers. Would you like some ice? Ice should help, it should make things better. Father needs me, father needs me…"

I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, I thought as tears leaked from my eyes. I'm your mom, I'm supposed to keep you safe. You're not even born yet and I couldn't do it. But you will be safe, angel, you will.

xXx

Beads of sweat were formed on my head, as my teeth ground together. I had _never _experienced pain like this before!

"AH!" I screamed as another contraction ripped through my body.

"That's it, that's it." The red woman said. "Not long now. But vitals are bad, so very bad."

I ignored her, trying to push the pain out of my mind. Focus. Focus on good things. God. My friends. My brother. My…parents. My baby. Kurt.

I believed this would be easier if I had Kurt here with me. He always gave me strength. He should be here. I need him here.

As another contraction came, I screamed at the top of my lungs, making the woman flinch.

"KURT! DAMMIT KURT!" I wailed.

The air beside me shimmered a dark blue light. I stared at it open mouthed, as Kurt formed beside me.

"If that's you Azazel, in Kurt's form, you are a dead man." I threatened.

"Katie?" Kurt looked genuinely shocked.

"That's really you, Kurt?" I asked quietly. "Thank God, you found me."

Kurt quickly took my hand and smoothed back my hair from my face. "You're, you're in labour?"

"You didn't find me, did you?"

"I vas on the Blackbird, going to find you, and then I was here."

I closed my eyes and breathed through the pain. "Your daughter."

"You mean-"

"Push, please." The red woman interrupted softly.

"Kurt, I'm having the baby."

"I see."

"I don't think I can."

"You can. I'm right here."

We were both weirdly calm on the outside.

"Let's do this."

xXx

An hour in, I was too tired to go on. My eyes were closed and I was out of breath. I started to go unconscious a couple times. Kurt tried to encourage me, but I could tell how useless and helpless he felt.

"Just one more push, Katie, you can do this!" Kurt said, trying to should hopeful.

"No good, no good. Can't do it." The red woman sighed.

Kurt turned on the woman. "Don't say that!"

The woman cringed at the harsh words, but still wasn't too afraid of him not to say "She can't do it. Too many problems. Must do it the other way."

"Other way?" Kurt looked at me, afraid. "Listen, just let me take her out of here. I can get her to a real hospital and they can-"

"No, no. Father needs her. Can't go." The woman stated, turning around. In her hand was a large knife.

Kurt grasped my hand harder, and I felt him try to teleport. It didn't work.

"Can't do it. Only father. Only me. Special place." The woman explained. "Step back please."

"No, get away from her!" Kurt roared. He lunged at the woman, but he flew back as though the woman had a force field around her. He slammed into the rock wall. He tried to get back to protect me, but he was held against the wall as though chained. "Katie!"

"Baby in distress, can't hold on much longer." She said to me, almost sadly. "Only way."

With that she plunged the knife into me. I screamed like a banshee. In the next moments, all I knew was pain. I wished I was dead. Kurt yelled from the wall in German, blood flowed from my abdomen and onto the floor, but then…a small pitiful cry stopped everything.

"Yes, a girl. Just like he said. A girl." The red woman said.

I gasped, seeing only a small fraction of her head as she was wrapped in a white small blanket.

"Let me…let me hold her." I begged with ragged breath.

"No, he said no. She's his." She said, shaking her head. Kurt fell away from the wall, freed. He scrambled to get at the woman but she teleported away. He cursed in German and tried to teleport after her, but he couldn't. He turned his attention to me. Hurrying to my side, he pressed a nearby towel against the open slit in me to try to control the bleed.

"No no no." I moaned. I lost a lot of blood, and losing more every second.

They had her. They had my daughter. And I was going to die.

"It's over."

"No its not! You'll be okay. The X-men must half tracked us by now. They'll be here any second." Kurt said, smoothing back my hair. "You're okay and ve'll get her back!"

"No, we won't Kurt. You'll get her back."

"Don't talk like that!"

"I've lost too much blood. Too much damage has been done." I said gently to him, trying to sound brave and calm. "I don't have much time left. I'm so tired…"

"You half to hold on Katie! Just hold on, the others vill be here soon and Hank can fix you. You'll be okay! Look," Kurt shakily pulled out a small red velvet box. Seeing it, I let out a sound that was half way between a laugh and a cry. "See this Katie? I vas going to ask you to marry me. You half to hold on, because ve are going to get married, and you are going to be an ER doctor, and ve're going to raise our daughter together! Please marry me Katie, please."

Kurt held out a beautiful silver ring with two diamonds on either side of an elegantly carved blue sapphire. The look on his face made me think that he believed with all his heart that I would survive this if I just accepted the ring. That by placing it on my finger, I would be healed. I wanted to believe this disillusion too, but I knew that my body was already going into uncompensated shock. I didn't have long left, and no magical ring could change that.

"Oh Kurt." I whispered. "I love you, but we both know it's not possible."

"Yes, yes it is! You just have to-"

"Please Kurt, just stop. I don't have, much time left." I was beginning to feel the effects of my organs shutting down. "You have to go save our daughter. Raise her right. Baptise her soon. Read to her every night. I want Kitty to be her godmother, and Logan godfather, okay? She'll be kind and he'll keep her safe. And get my brother out of that house, please Kurt. There's a letter in the bottom drawer of my dresser. Give it to her when she'd old enough. Everything I have is hers. Make sure she knows she's loved and that she can do anything in the world she puts her mind to. Teach her the importance of manners and-"

"Stop talking like that! You're going to be okay." Kurt said, his voice angry and afraid.

I touched his smooth cheek and smiled sadly.

"I can't do this vithout you, Katie. I, I can't!" Kurt exclaimed. When he closed his eyes, tears escaped and fell onto my face. I took my Kurt's hand and pulled it close.

"Kurt, I need you…to look at me." I struggled to speak as the world spun. "You have to save her, okay? Save her and protect her. You're going to raise our daughter right and with all the love you have."

"I-"

"You can, because you have to. Loving her will be the easy part." I tried not to cry, but I couldn't help it. I was afraid to die, and I didn't want to go. Not yet. I guess as a Christian, I'm not supposed to be scared of death. The best I could do to comfort myself was knowing that I'd be able to watch my family from heaven.

God, I know I've made a lot of mistakes but please let me into Your kingdom. I've had a good life, even if it was short. I believe this was Your plan all along and there is a reason for everything. Please help Kurt not to be too sad, my friends too. Please help them save my daughter. Please let my parents one day see the light and protect my brother. I know I'm asking a lot, but please hear my pleas and look after all of them.

The prayer I learned as a child floated into my mind.

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the lord my soul to keep,

May angels watch me through the night,

And keep me in their blessed sight.

Thy Love protect me through the night

and wake me with the morning light.

"I love you so much, and I regret nothing. I would have done this all again." I told Kurt breathlessly. No longer able to see his face, only darkness. I reached out to touch his face, struggling to lift my arm. Kurt took my hand.

"I love you, my Engel."

The last thing I felt was Kurt's warm lips pressed to mine.

xXx

Kitty phased herself and Logan through the rock wall, having located Kurt's signal minutes before. Kitty stumbled as she exited the wall, feeling drained.

"Oh my God, what was that stuff?" Kitty asked, grasping her head. "I've never felt stuff like that-"

"Kitty." Logan said quietly.

"What?"

"Shut up."

"What do you, oh my Lord." Kitty looked up to find herself in a strange, primitive room with hospital machines in it. Logan stood solemnly, watching over Kurt. Kurt himself was sitting on a rock bed, crying silently and rocking with a pale lifeless figure held tightly in his arms.

Logan and Kitty could only watch in silence and horror, not sure what to say. Finally a voice broke the silence. Scott's voice sounded from their communication devices.

"Wolverine, Shadowcat, did you find them? Was the signal right?"

Neither spoke, making Cyclops speak again.

"Wolverine, please respond. What did you find?" Scott asked impatiently.

"You tell him, Kitty. Over there." Wolverine muttered quietly, motioning to the far side of the room where Kurt wouldn't have to hear her. Kitty nodded in response. Wolverine took a deep breath and walked over to Kurt.

"I'm sorry Kurt, I really am."

"Its my fault. He came after her because of me. She's dead because of me." Kurt said in a toneless voice. "She'd be alive if I just left her alone, if I didn't…"

"You know that's not true and yer doing no one any good blaming yourself." Wolverine said gruffly. Logan knew the pain of losing someone so close, but he didn't know how to ease that pain. "I know yer hurting, and that's okay. Its expected. But you're going to hurt even more if you can't pull yourself together enough to save yer daughter. You can't lose the best part of Katie now."

Kurt didn't say anything. He kept his head down as he stood, still holding Katie's body. Logan didn't speak as he assisted Kurt in wrapping the body in a sheet he picked up from one of the shelves.

Kitty was crying, not able to believe her best friend was gone. She phased both men through the rock wall, with Kurt holding Katie's body wrapped in a sheet, then hurried into the Blackbird so no one would see her weeping face. The X-men were shocked to see Kurt clutching Katie's body.

What do you say to the man who's lost everything?

xXx

Everything had happened in fast forward mode for Kurt ever since Katie's heart stopped beating. It was blurry, quick, only letting him catch and understand glimpses of what was happening around him. It made him wonder if this is how it would feel for the rest of his life.

Pointless, cold, hopeless.

But facing his father now, the world changed again.

Only he had been able to enter into the strange castle Scott had located with the help of the psychics. Even Kitty was unable to phase through the strange, foreign stone. He passed silently through the dark, cold halls until he came upon a poorly lit room. He had already passed the body of the red woman who had cut Katie apart and stolen their child. Her neck seemed to have been snapped. Kurt felt no sympathy for his sister. He crept up to the room, hearing from inside the crying of a baby.

The room itself was different. Though the walls were cold stone, the chamber could pass for an acceptable nursery. With a change table, a dresser, a rocking chair and even a mobile. Against the wall, next to the window, was a black crib. Kurt's father leaned over the crib, blocking the child from sight, murmuring.

A rage boiled in Kurt's heart, making him yell like the demon people confused him for. He threw himself onto Azazel, almost knocking the crib over.

A wrestling match came of the fight. Azazel attempted to teleport out of Kurt's hands, but the young father held on tightly. Once Kurt had pinned the older man, he wrapped his hand around his throat. To his shock, Azazel began to laugh.

"Well done Kurt, really, bravo." Azazel cheered mockingly. "You caught me by surprise! I really didn't expect to see you till much later."

"Don't speak to me." Kurt snarled, tightening his grip.

"You don't know what you have Kurt." Azazel gasped, managing to still speak with part of his throat closed off. "She's going to bring the Balance to an end. It will finally sway to Hell's side, and stay there. Even if you take her, it will end the same way. I'll still win."

"You're wrong! She's going to be just as good and pure as her mother! She'll never be like you!"

"What, that little tramp? Still moaning over a corpse?" Azazel asked innocently. "My only regret is that I didn't kill her myself."

Kurt roared and brought his father's head up just enough to slam it back into the stone floor with force. He made a mistake though, while lieeting out his frustration, Kurt forgot to watch the tail. The red tail was wrapped around a large silver knife. Kurt managed to dodge it before it slit his throat, but it still caught his cheekbone. Azazel took the opertunity to teleport to the crib's side.

Inside the baby girl was still crying at the top of her young lungs.

Azazel reached into the cradle-

"No!" Kurt cried out.

As his hands wrapped around the baby, triumph was written across Azazel's face. He smirked at Kurt, about to teleport away, until he felt the burning in his hands. Horrified, the demon looked down at the hands holding the wailing infant to see they were slowly turning to ash. He dropped the baby and held his hands up to see them disinagrating before his very eyes. He let out an anguished screech and teleported away.

Slowly, Kurt got up from the floor and limped to the cradle. He peered down for the first time at his and Katie's daughter.

The baby was whimpering, but not crying as she once had. She looked so frail and afraid. Gently, Kurt reached down to softly take his daughter into his hands.

He was glad to find he didn't burn from handling the girl.

The infant quieted slowly in his arms as he rocked her back and forth slowly, singing an old German lullaby. She lifted her one arm unsurely and grazed Kurt's face with it, instantly healing the still bleeding gash from the knife.

When she was first born, it was difficult to see what she looked like. Now hours later, Kurt could really see his daughter. He was glad to see she wasn't blue and tailed, because he knew how hard it was to look like a demon. He would have loved her just as much if she had looked like him, but he never wanted his daughter to go through the things he did. As well, now she'd have a chance to look like Katie. But she didn't look human either. Tiny dark blue wings sprouted from her delicate shoulders, and on closer examination, Kurt saw tiny specks of blue on the baby's cheeks and nose, almost like freckles or specks of paint.

Katie had freckles.

Kurt felt tears well up in his eyes and he pulled his daughter closer to him.

Her name came to him like a whisper in his mind. It was almost like a telepath had entered his mind to speak to him, but there was something different about it. It was familiar and warm. He recognized the name and its meaning, and he knew it fit his sweet little girl. "Good little angel", it meant.

"Come on Evangelina, let's go home." Kurt whispered softly.

xXx

*Four years later*

"Daddy! Jack! Come on we gots ta go!" The little girl squealed bouncing up and down by the door. She was in such a hurry that she had got one of her wings stuck in the slits cut into her coat.

"Eva, be patient." Kurt scolded, trying not to smile at the sight of his daughter. He bent and pulled her close to him so that he could help her with her coat.

"I can't!" Eva moaned, as if standing still was painful for her. Kurt finished freeing her wing, making her smile at him. "Tanks daddy."

"You're velcome, engel." Over his shoulder, Kurt called "Jack, are you ready?"

The teenage boy appeared from his room. "I'm coming, I just had to find my shoes."

"You're lucking to find anything in that room." Kurt commented.

"Man Kurt, when did you get so old?" Jack replied. "And I couldn't find my shoes because this little monkey keeps hiding my stuff."

Jack reached down to tickle his niece, making her giggle. He had been living with Kurt since he was eleven. Things weren't always easy, but they were better than they would be with his parents. When he turned thirteen, they learned it was a good thing that they got him out of his parents' reach when they did because he developed the mutant powers of density manipulation. It allowed him to become as hard as adamantium or lighter than air. Though it took him awhile to learn control over his powers, Jack was ecstatic about being a mutant, because he felt like he finally fit in with his friends at the school.

"I'm not a monkey!" Eva said reproachfully, crossing her arms.

Eva was delicately boned, like a bird. She had pure white hair with locks of blue in it and liked to wear her hair in two thick braids. She was very pale, and the blue freckles that speckled her face were more noticeable now. Her eyes were grey, but whenever she felt an intense emotion or used her mysterious powers they were known to turn blue. Her wings had grown much in the few years, now with a wingspan longer then her arms. They were still too small and weak to carry her in flight, not that it stopped Eva from trying to fly. She fit in well at Xavier's, though she was much younger than the rest of the students. She even fit in society because her strange characteristics could be explained as a little girl playing dress up.

The door opened to reveal the newly engaged Kitty and Peter, followed by Remy.

"Hi guyes!" Eva greeted excitedly, wrapping her arms around their legs in hugs. Remembering something, she stepped back and frowned. She crossed her arms and glared at each adult sternly. "You guyes are late."

"We sorry petite, but we just got back Miri Island." Remy explained, picking up Eva so that their eyes were level. "You forgive bad ol'Remy?"

"You're forgived." Eva said solemnly, touching the Cajuns hair.

"Happy birthday, chickee." Kitty said, taking her turn to hug the girl.

Peter handed Eva a handsomely wrapped present, saying "С ДНЁМ РОЖДЕНИЯ"

"Danke!" Eva chirped.

"You know, she might have better grammar if you weren't trying to teach her four different languages at once." Kitty commented, leaning on her fiancé.

"But how many three year olds do you know that are fluent in three different languages?" Kurt retorted proudly.

"I still don't get how she can know German, Russian and English, but not French!" Remy exclaimed. "It da easiest one ta know!"

"Son vrai," Jack agreed, faking a heavy French Canadian accent.

"See? Da little Canuck know what Remy talk'n about!" Remy said, propping Jack's fist.

Eva pulled gently on Kurt's jacket until he looked down at her.

"Daddy, I'm four now, not three." Eva said softly, as if she didn't want to hurt Kurt's feelings.

"Right, four, how silly of me. You're growing up too fast, engel." Kurt replied, picking her up.

"No, too slow." Eva argued, making the adults grin. They all knew how much the child wanted to be old enough to go on missions and adventures with the X-men. They constantly had to drag her away from the Danger Room and Blackbird and remind her not to use her powers. Once Kitty even caught her trying to age herself with her strange abilities.

"Can we go now? Mommy's waiting." Eva said calmly.

Quietly, the group assembled out on the grounds, in the majestic clearing that was dedicated to those of the school who had died over the years. Eva ran ahead through the graveyard, knowing the path better than any of them. When they caught up to her, they saw her sitting cross legged in front of a gravestone, staring at it easily.

"-and then I helpeded Dr. Beast put away some new needles. He said you spent a lot of time in the Bay too, helping him. He said you were gonna be a doctor, a really good one." The little girl chattered. "Look at my wings, Mummy! They're almost big enough that I can fly. But Daddy and all the grown ups are scaredy cats and say I can't start flying for another couple years. Angel says when I'm older he'll teach me how to fly like him. Are your wings blue too, Mummy? I know angels are supposed to have white wings, but are yours different?"

The girl quieted as the adults came closer. Silently, she placed a blue rose on the headstone.

Almost everyday Eva went out to visit her mother's grave. She'd trace her mother's name on the headstone then gaze at the stone angel for awhile. Then she'd relate the day's events for Katie. On her birthday, her mother's death anniversary, she'd bring out a blue rose for her.

Eva got to her feet and spoke quietly. "Mummy, other people came to see you today. Remember, Aunt Kitty and Peter are gonna get married in the spring. And silly Remy finally got his hair cut. I think he did it for me, cause it's my birthday. Aunt Anna couldn't come, cause she's with the Shi'ar. Uncle Jack's here, don't tease him about sneaking into the girl's dorm, okay? He already got in lots of trouble for it, and a bunch of girls threw him out a window. Daddy's here too, Mummy. I heard him crying this morning. I think he's sad cause he misses you. You should come visit us from Heaven soon, so he won't be so sad. Talk it over with God and see if He's okay with it, then get back to me, okay Mummy?"

Eva turned to look at her family. "You guys can talk to her now, I won't interrupt yous."

Each adult felt their hearts squeeze. Tears swelled in Kitty's eyes, so she hid her face in Peter's muscled arm. She hadn't known Katie as long as some of her other friends, but Kitty still called Katie her best friend. She told Eva stories about them being "Kit Kat", and they both giggled whenever they saw someone eating that chocolate bar. Kitty planned on naming her first daughter after Katie.

Each person laid flowers down on the headstone and quietly paid their respects to their lost friend. Jack knelt by the headstone and whispered quietly in French. Remy excused himself so that the boy could speak privately. When Kurt stepped up with a bouquet of blue and white roses, the others excused themselves. Kitty convinced Eva to go look at a snow fort some student had built with her so that Kurt could be alone.

"Hello, Engel." Kurt whispered. "Eva's doing really vell, ve all are."

Kurt paused before going on. "Its not any easier, but I'm going on. Some days I don't feel like getting out of bed, but I do because of Eva. She's so much like you Katie. She laughs like you, and she has your smile. She's very smart too, and a great sense of humor. She hardly ever gets upset about anything."

"I miss you Katie."

"Daddy? Are you okay?" A small voice asked. Kurt quickly wiped his eyes before turning to Eva.

"I'm okay, engel, just a little sad." Kurt replied, taking Eva's hand. "Are you ready to go to your birthday supper?"

Eva nodded in response.

Father and daughter walked away from the gravestone holding hands.

The End.


	16. Chapter 16

Hey guys! First of all, I'm sorry if that last chapter made you cry! And thank you all for your kind words and loyalty, you guys are awesome! I don't know if any of you would be interested in reading more about Eva, but if you would, go over to my new story "Daughters of the Atom". She's going to be in it! Hope you guys like it, and thanks again!


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